Will my cold pasta salad be ok if it sits out at work for 8 hours?!
Answers: It will have pasta (obviously), italian dressing, pepperoni, broccoli florets, tomatoes and some sprinkled in shredded parmesan cheese. Will this be ok?
Buy a couple of those lunch box things that keep food cold. I call them freezer things. They are usually blue and rectangle, you throw them in the freezer until frozen, then put with the food. You might want to wrap them in a baggie to prevent your dressing from getting all over them. Use two of them if your container is bigger. My daughter's 'freezer things' last all day when she's at school and is still cold when she comes home.
WELL....IT WONT BE COLD OBVIOUSLY. I DONT KNOW IF IT WILL OK OR NOT THOUGH...
Only if you put it in a bowl, and put a larger bowl under it with ice, and put more ice in it when it melts. The pasta salad need to be kept at 40 degrees F because you'll get a large breeding ground for bacteria.
Please don't make people sick.
It'll be fine just sitting out, but you can go to wallmart and buy a mini cooler for like $10 and put some ice in it and it will stay cool for about two days!
No ice chest available???
do not put dressing or the cheese on until your ready to serve..
Absolutely not. If you leave it out at room temperature for 8 hours you are risking a good dose of food poisoning. Check any food safety web site and they will tell you the same thing. But I'm telling you based on my microbiology background that it is very risky. You might not get sick every time by you odds are very high. The folks who suggest you use a cooler are on the right track. Remember keep cold foods cold and hot foods hot.
PhD Food Chemistry and Nutrition
i wouldn't trust it.
try to refrigerate it becasue if you let meat or paultry sit out more than 2 hours in room temp then it will start going bad and could start to get contaminated. learned it today in FACS!