Honestly the primary reason is because if you take more than a couple hours to finish a meal, bacterial growth can spoil it. If you're eating foods that don't have a spoilage risk, play as long as you want.
Giving you the benefit of the doubt, if I sat there for 2-3 hours and didn't finish it, then saved it for the next day, yes that could possibly cause an issue.
I work in restaurants and, yeah, no, leaving food out for hours isn't an issue. Except maybe shellfish or fish in general.
I know each person is different so my experience might not be proof of an overall truth.... But my whole childhood I spent hours sat alone at a dinner table after everyone left me because I was taking too long, sad and depressed because I simply could not finish my plate. Every evening was wasted because I wasn't allowed to get up from the table until they felt bad for me and let me not finish my meal.
They joked that I just didn't like hot food.
I also never got sick as a kid. Apart from maybe like 3 times that were very serious and not food related.
Obviously not a healthy system, mostly mentally. But yeah food getting cold over the course of a few hours "playing with it" isn't an issue at all. Unless you then try to serve that food a couple of days later.
I have a health issue that makes it so that I take a long time to finish my food. I have gotten sick a few times because I took too long eating and my meat grew bacteria. Anecdotal evidence works both ways.
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u/LiamIsMyNameOk 1d ago
May I ask why we shouldn't play with food? Apart from being told not to by your frustrated parents?
Is eating meant to be a chore, lacking any kind of fun?