Thawing Foods At Room Temperature Can Lead To. Meat, fish, and poultry to thaw at room temperature. Food should be left out at room temperature for the shortest time possible.

How can you go wrong with thawing? The temperature that many germs grow in. Even though the center of the package may still be frozen as it thaws on the counter, the outer layer of the food could be in the danger zone, between 40 and 140 °f — temperatures where bacteria multiply rapidly.