How Long Can Pizza Sit Out

When you get a pizza, how soon do you put it in the fridge within two hours? Many official food safety rules suggest doing this within that time when dealing with pizza. So read below to find out the exact shelf life of pizza.

Yet, a food safety specialist at Michigan State thinks that might be overly cautious. So, we decided to check it with a simple test. This expert is Dr. Theresa Bergholz, who I was lucky to find through the new connection between Henry Ford Health and Michigan State University.

Here one thing must be noted we had tried our best to get accurate results. But you have to rely on your own experiences. Do not get our findings the last word. We recommend you rely on your judgment and common sense. This way, you can handle and eat safe food.

The Pizza Test

We kicked off by making three identical pepperoni pizzas. To make it like real life, we baked them, let them cool a bit, cut them, and then started our test.

Pizza A, our standard pizza, was directly put in the fridge after it was cut. Pizza B and C were served and handled normally by a group of college students. After that, Pizza B went into the fridge (within two hours of baking), and Pizza C was covered and kept on the counter.

For the experiment to work, pizzas B and C needed to be handled normally, as that's when they could get contaminated.

The Cheesy Results – Ready To Read It?

After six hours from when they came out of the oven, we examined all three pizzas. The process of examining food is more complex than I thought. First, we took 25 grams of pizza and put it in a clean bag with a clean liquid.

Then, we put that bag into a device called a stomacher. The stomacher squashes the sample into a semi-liquid mixture that can be spread on culture plates. We spread the liquid mix on different plates, including one that's good at finding staphylococcus aureus.

We did this because staph aureus is a common cause of food sickness from handling. In addition, we did the test again at 12 and 24 hours. After waiting the right amount of time, we looked at all the plates and we went back to Dr. Bergholz's lab two days later for the results.

What Happened After Two Days

Pizza A, the one put straight into the fridge, had 30 tiny cells per gram after 6 hours. "It's very low, almost like it's super clean," said Bergholz.

Pizza B, which was touched but put in the fridge within 2 hours, had 140 tiny cells per gram after 6 hours. That's more than the standard pizza and shows how handling adds to possible contamination. Bergholz still said it's "pretty low."

Lastly, Pizza C, handled and kept out of the fridge, had 2,600 tiny cells per gram after 6 hours. This pizza interested us a lot because it's like what many of us do. Mixing handling and no fridge made more tiny things grow. But, let's remember that the number 2,600 tiny cells per gram need some context.

Pizza left out for 6 hours

Dr. Bergholz said that even though this was much more than the cold pizza, it's still "a pretty low number of tiny things." She added, "Fresh foods like veggies and fruits can have 1000 to 10,000 tiny things per gram on them." She said, “What we're seeing here is that even if it's out for 6 hours, it still seems pretty low risk." The tiny things growing on the plates all seemed to be regular harmless stuff. No harmful staph aurous was found.

At 12 and 24 hours, there were "a lot of molds taking over" in the cultures, Bergholz explained. "Having yeast and mold on food isn't harmful, we know mold spores float in the air, so that was likely where they came from," she said.

FAQs Related to How Long Pizza Sit Out

Our above experiment and the result show that leaving pizza out overnight is not safe. Below we have gathered some frequently asked questions related to the shelf life of pizza. These questions and answers will help you store pizza properly and what is the right temperature for it. Moreover, keep in mind if the pizza packaging boxes have vents (holes in the pizza box) on it then your pizza can stay fresh at room temperature for 2 hours.

How Long Can Pizza Stay Out At Room Temperature?

If you stay out of pizza for a long time then it has many ingredients that are going to spoil. Because in it, bacteria start the growing process. According to the information provided by USDA, we can put pizza at room temperature for a maximum of two hours.

But if your room is hotter than 90°F, then the safe time for leaving pizza out goes down to one hour or even less because bacteria can grow faster in higher temperatures.

How Long Is Leftover Pizza Good For Eating?

Well, the leftover pizza can stay good for eating if it does not stay more than 2 hours. So any type of pizza that you have purchased from the market or made in your home, would be safe for eating if the stay-out time is not more than 2 hours. Moreover, keep it under a lower temperature. The higher temperature makes bacteria grow faster and spoil the pizza quicker. How long is it okay to leave pizza out? The answer is no more than two hours.

How to Keep Pizza within the Safe Zone?

Follow the "Two-Hour Rule." If you want to make your pizza safe to eat then strictly follow the rule of two hours. This rule means that do not leave pizza at room temperature after 2 hours.

Put It in the Fridge. To keep your pizza within the safe zone is to put it inside the fridge. Eat as much as you can when you order new pizza and keep leftover pizza inside the fridge to increase its shelf life.

How Long Is Pizza Good For In The Fridge?

Now many of you are thinking about how long you can place pizza inside the fridge. So the simpler answer is not more than four days. Yes, you can store pizza in the Fridge for a maximum of four days and keep it inside the wrap.