I’m also willing to stipulate that this happens. I have no experience with this. Definitely not. But I have a good feeling that other people have done this. But not me.
Do you have a source on that? I'm pretty sure pizza does not go bad in 24h at room temp and normal humidity. While I agree that food safety is important not everything needs to be stored in fridge temperatures.
Well it depends on what one considers normal temperature and humidity I guess, now that I wrote this.
Anything cooked goes in the fridge or freezer, that's something that everyone should be expected to know but humans are really good at proving how dumb they are. Thousands of people get sick every year from leaving food out in room temp. It's not that it will always go bad quickly, it's that the chance of that happening compared to keeping it in a colder environment is so much higher. And who the fuck likes sweaty room temp anything? It's disgusting.
I guess people just fucking died before refrigeration...
And in regards to pizza: I mostly order pizza when hosting a party, so the fridge is full with other party stuff and at the end I'm tired anyways. Knowing that the leftovers will not survive the next 24h anyways it's more convenient to just leave them covered by the pizza carton at room temp. Also I warm the pizza up anyways when I eat it.
Also sweaty? That's actually something that happens when I leave certain stuff in the fridge because of condensation. I have more of a problem that it dries out outside the fridge. What climate are you living in? That could explain the difference in our world view.
Where the hell do you live where your environment will dry it out more than a fridge?!?
Midwest here, so that's just not even a possibility haha.
Also yes, people did just simply die before refrigeration, or they used salt, holes on the ground, or any other way to keep certain foods cold and safe to eat.
Due to the way relative humidity works, most environments where the inside of the fridge is cooler than the outside should work like that. Cooler air has a lower water capacity than warmer air and all the air in your fridge came from outside of your fridge.
If humidity is very low, then temperature won't make as much of a difference and you might see similar drying inside and out, at least as far as relative humidity is concerned. But with more light and higher temps outside the fridge, I'd still guess you'd see more drying outside the fridge.
Maybe it seems the other way because you allow food to sit longer inside the fridge than outside? Or, if you experience high humidity and fluctuating temperatures, maybe you see more condensation outside of the fridge?
Fridges are very good dehydrators due to the simple fact that their back wall is a giant condenser. It is always colder than air in the fridge, which forces moisture in the air to condense there, it then drips into the tray under the fridge and air inside gets dry. Dry air absorbs moisture from the food and the cycle continues.
This is why you store your fresh greens in covered plastic buckets, otherwise they will dry out very fast. And this is why dry curing meat in the fridge works really well. Also if you grow herbs or have excess and want to dry them, chop them, put on a tray and into the fridge, they will dry out in a day or two depending on how much you chopped.
Properly made bread has low moisture content and low pH. It's basically a self preserving food, like pickles. But when you buy shit bread (which technically is a yeast flavoured cake, not bread) it will develop mould within a couple of days even with preservatives added.
I knew people who got drunk, woke up next day, and ate the pizza left out from the previous night for breakfast. Didn't even heat it up.
I don't do it because bugs are opportunists.
Er doesn't botulism specifically develop in oxygen-free alkaline environments? Seems like it's unlikely on a day old pizza left on the table...
Besides, I always leave pizza out for days before consuming it all. To be fair, this is mostly in the winter when the house is cooler. And I don't eat meat.
Not particularly likely; Clostridium botulinum doesn't like oxygen. Still a good way to get food poisoning of some sort, just probably not that particular sort
I hope you never meet my family. Literally everyone aside from me just leaves leftover food in the pan/oven instead of putting it in the fridge. Sometimes for more than 24 hours (time depends on when I find it and put it in the fridge, because lord knows they won't)
Yes I've yelled at them a million times and told them they're ruining the food and risking health problems. No they don't care.