Saved by Imitation Miracle Whip

After work last Friday my husband said he felt shaky.  I asked if he ate lunch.  He said no. He forgot it somewhere.  He quickly found it on the kitchen counter-top where it had been sitting from 7AM until about 3PM.  I made him 2 turkey and American cheese sandwiches on bagel thins with Miracle Whip spread on one side of the bagel and Hellman's low-fat mayo on the other.  It was my attempt to slowly wean him off of Miracle Whip without him knowing.

As he was headed to an evening track meet he told me he would take the lunch and eat it at the meet.  I told him to throw it out.  We argued over potential food poisoning. I pointed out that bacteria can double every 20 minutes after food is left out for an extended time. He countered with "Our house was cold during the day since we left the heat off and his food would be fine".  He later called me from the meet and said he did not eat his lunch because it tasted weird.  I am not sure if it was an overgrowth of bacteria, it's common for food that has gone bad to not taste any different, or the Hellman's mayonnaise I snuck in. (I hate to say it but I was hoping he would eat the lunch because if he got food poisoning my thinking was that he would not eat food that was unrefrigerated again; of course I would not want him to get any life threatening illness - just a little stomach flu) Good news is that he agreed there was something wrong with the sandwiches and he threw them out after one bite. I think he will listen to me in the future.  Maybe (I'm delusional)

The "Temperature Danger Zone", 40°F to 140°F, is a range of temperatures where bacteria can multiple to unsafe levels. On Friday our house temperature was 65°F.  So bacteria was growing rapidly on my husbands lunch.  For more information on how to avoid food poisoning or to win an argument with your husband about it, check out this link. http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/basics/index.html

This chart is from About.com.  I thought it was a nice explanation of the Temperature Danger Zone.
http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/safetysanitation/a/dangerzone_tab.htm

165°F and higher:	Most bacteria die within several seconds
141°F to 164°F:	Holding hot foods and sauces. Bacteria aren't killed, but they don't multiply, either.
40°F to 140°F: Food Temperature Danger Zone	Bacteria thrive and multiply. Limit exposure of perishable foods to one hour or less.
33°F to 39°F:	Refrigerated food storage. Bacteria aren't killed. They multiply, but relatively slowly. Food is safe here for a limited time.
32°F and lower:	Frozen food storage: Bacteria aren't killed, but they don't multiply,