I realized that this is extremely frowned upon by the FDA but I've done this my entire life, now that I know I won't do this anymore but have never gotten sick before so didn't think much about it.
Too much can go wrong, to risk leaving pizza out overnight. Bacteria can grow on almost every surface in almost every environment, but lets just go through the ingredients. Meat(s)? Check. Cheese(s)? Check. Crust composed of dough/flour? Check. A warm optimal environment for the bacteria to grow, in the pizza itself? Check. Room temperature so that the bacteria can thrive? Check. I don't like telling internet strangers what to do or how to think, because we're (mostly) all adults here, but please don't risk leaving pizza out overnight.
You order pizza and don't eat it til the next day or you have leftover pizza? Neither option makes sense to me.
On the plus side your immune system is probably stronger than the rest of us when it comes to bacteria on overnight pizza. So you got that going for ya.
Yeah, don't leave it sitting around in the air all day, cover it overnight after it cools off (foil/plastic over a plate or in a ziploc), reheat it right (stovetop skillet on med-low heat, covered, throw a drizzle of water in towards the end, helps the crust. Try this and you'll never microwave pizza again) and eat it the next day and you're fine. I'm assuming you're talking about a climate controlled domicile and not in the backseat of your car parked in the sun in August in Texas. LOL at the guy that said you shouldn't leave bread and cheese at room temp, or cooked meat and veggies temporarily, for that matter. You're much more likely to get sick from the fresh veggies in your refrigerator. Germophobes amuse me.
Yes, after 5 days I wouldn't eat it either. But that's not what we're talking about. Pasta and rice are the worst things you can eat after leaving in the fridge too long, btw.
Advice (maybe not the best advice) from the guys I just texted about your quandry: "That aint ****, last summer I ate a taco bell bean burrito that had been in my backpack for 3 days, on a summer raft trip. But I was hungry. The co-guide who saw it said 'does it smell bad? Then you're ok.'" "You wouldn't believe the leftover **** we ate in Iraq...and you're talking about a pizza, left out overnight? Are you ****ing kidding me?"
It’s not 5 days out of the fridge it was only 2. Health experts recommend you don’t eat much of anything that needs to be refrigerated after its bee out more then half a day.
Are you from Texas? My wife and her family are from north Indiana and I had a hell of a time getting her to put food up in a reasonable timeframe when we first met. See, if you have a clean home up there, there are no cockroaches in your house. Yearly weeks to months long freezes kill most of the fun bugs we have here in Houston. So somewhat regional. But never overnight. No. Hell no. I believe you get your ass nicked for doing something like that, man.
Bunch of pansies in here man. I put leftover pizza in the fridge most of the time but there are times that I dont and Im not overly worried about it either. Its not gonna kill you, hell 2 nights would still be okay in my book, healthwise, but its gonna taste like chit and be hard as cardboard.
Health experts like to say lots of things...like about eggs, butter, medium cooked hamburgers, ketchup, etc... They say to thoroughly wash all of your veggies, especially your leafy greens. Now how many of you actually do that? How many restaurants that you eat at actually do that?