Doesn't mayo go bad

“OK, My last trip we ate peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches till I thought I would puke so we are making a little variety.

One thing I heard for for lunch is Pita Pockets with Tuna/Mayo. Tuna comes in small pouches now (at wally world) and wewere told to "liberate" packets of mayo. So my g/f and I "liberated" about 20 packets :) from chick-fil-a.

My question is over a day or two - doesn't the mayo go bad? Although it looks as if stored at room temprature?”

“Speaking of puking, LOL...

Yes, it has to be kept cold after it's opened. The packets should be fine --- although I've had some that looked a little funny after a few days in 95-degree heat.”

“It only goes bad if you open the package or jar, then let it sit around for a while unrefrigerated. As long as it is in a sealed package you are fine until its opened.”

“Do be careful after it's been opened. If biologists didn't have agar agar to put in petri dishes, mayonnaise would serve pretty well.”

“Also, you can add dried onions bits, plus pacjaged relish. To spice up the tuna. I picked up Mayo packs for the fastfood places. And Snow Nymph gave us a lot of them. Relish packs we purchased from Smart and final.. Which reminds me. SN, I have your relish packages.....”

“Yes, Mother Goose and I are guilty as well of 'liberating' excess condiment packets from fast food joints. I actually saw this recommended on another backpacking site. The author wrote of the practice, then typed "wink, wink!' We now refer to the pilfered items as 'wink-winks'.
Good God, we're actually condoning petty theft, here! For shame!”

“Mayo in the foil packs have a very long shelf life. they will eventually seperate and spoil. I would suggest picking up fresh ones for each trip.”

“It could be worse, FG. I had a friend whose father used to pocket all of the sweetener packages whenever he went to a restaurant. The guy had a salary in six figures, but still relied on "petty theft" to supply himself with sugar!

If you don't want to "steal" the packages, simply go to your favorite fast food place during the lunch rush, and pick up the leftover unused packets from tables after people have left. The crew will likely just sweep them into the garbage with everything else on the table, so you're really doing a good thing.”

“i liberate plenty of things from bk... mostly honey and shortening for bp-ing, but i take bbq, ranch, ketchup, mayo... it's all free, plenty worth it... along with my shirt i got for a quarter from goodwill”

“It's not the mayonnaise that spoils; mayo actually retards spoilage. mayo is one of the safest foods when properly handled. Most harmful bacteria die off within hours in the presence of mayo due to it's high acidity. I know a gologist who usually had a jar of mayo rolling around his jeep all summer ready for lunch. It seperated and had to be stirred, but it was safe. The tuna, potatoes, etc., is the source of the nasty bacteria.”

“Ahhh ok. I always assumed it was the egg-rich mayonnaise that provided the growth medium in potato salad, bane of the salad bar.”

“gets queezy at the thought of hot mayo from a jeep floorboard...that's not a good example...geologist are *twirls his finger in a circle near his head*”

“Open mayo will generally keep a reasonable amount of time without refrigeration. Years ago most people did not refrigerate open jars of mayo. It was common to keep mayo, ketchup and mustard on the table with sugar, salt etc.

If you do keep open mayo for later use make sure you do not introduce other food or contaminates into the container by using a clean utensil to dish out the mayo each time.

Licking the spoon 'til it shines is not sufficient.”

“"It's as clean as cold water can get it".”

“We used the mayo packets on our JMT trip and survived. Sometimes I order sandwiches for lunch meetings, and they give us tons of mayo & mustard (order 10 sandwiches and they give 20 pkts of each) Awhile ago they gave relish, but I haven't seen it in awhile. We get jelly packets if we order bagels. I started taking the honey and raw sugar packets with my mocha each morning. WLD, I'll bring you more next time I see you.”

“Every year at this time there are the stories of what to do on pic-a-nics. The stories always tell us, anything with mayo should NOT be out more than two hours. Once it's open, keep it cool or be cool by barfing green.”

“Wow!

aero is right. I’ve always thought of mayonnaise as a biological time bomb but according to an “Evaluation of the Role of Microbiological Criteria for Foods and Food Ingredients”, the acid level in (at least American) mayonnaise will kill most pathogens. Check out the third paragraph on page 69 and the section on mayonnaise and salad dressing on pages http://books.nap.edu/books/0309034973/html/278.html#page_middle" target="_blank">278 and http://books.nap.edu/books/0309034973/html/279.html#pagetop" target="_blank">279

So I guess if I took a jar along with several semi-sterile plastic utensils, it would be just fine?”

“*snif* I'm so misunderstood!
-Mayo”

“I got a raging case of food poisoning once from a tuna salad sandwich. I took it to work for lunch in the morning and it sat on my desk until about 11:00am, which is OK. But, I had to go to a meeting at noon so I threw it in the refrigerator and didn't eat it that day. Two days later (I'm starting to get queasy again..), I ate it for lunch. about 10 hours later I was hanging on the toilet, "phoning Ralph on the Big Phone", "Blowing Chunks", and my favorite (from lyra I think) "Yelling in Technicolor".

EVIL TUNA!”

“aero, you remembered!! that's so romantic...”

“lyra, that was one of your more colorful euphemisms.”

“spank you! i thought it was the breast, too.

i think i got food poisoning from Jello shots once...bizarre! who'd have thought.”

“I've heard that one before: "it must have been some bad pizza I had with that pint of of vodka."

Maybe someone slipped you a petri dish from the micro lab.

Let's do Mayonnaise shots! That should be safe!”