this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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It will be disgusting but if you thoroughly cook it it should be safe.
Cooking kills most bacteria - but not all, that's how food poisoning still happens in cooked food (cross contamination too, but that's a separate issue). You should never defrost meat at room temp, best way is in the fridge since it still keeps it at a temp that's safe for a few days after being fully defrosted but it takes a day or two to fully defrost. To do it faster you can submerge it in cold water if you replace the water every couple of hours (or more often, depending on your room temp) until you cook it but that's a last resort if you just need it defrosted in the same day
Afaik, all immeadiately dangerous bacteria get killed by cooking. To completely kill the botulism bacteria for example, you'd have to heat it to 120°C, but the botulism bacteria isn't dangerous, it just produces toxins (that are destroyed at 80°C). The only real concern here are toxin producing bacteria and fungi (that won't sufficiently reproduce in such a short timespan as is necessary for thawing 1kg of meat). It might be bad if you left it out for longer.
This is the reason that the food standard cooking temperature for a variety of different meats in the EU is 80c for a variety of different amounts of time, it's not to kill the pathogens it's to kill the by-products. Edit typo. Edit facts https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/cooking-safely-in-your-business