How long can milk be left out at room temperature before it spoils?
by 
Jon the human
ANSWERS: 8
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probably about 1 hour and 30 minutes
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I've heard that dairy products that have been out more than three hours should not be used. I wouldn't take any chances. I'm assuming you mean "fresh" milk
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Regular milk in Japan is bionic. I left it out for entire day and it still was good the next day. There are types of milk that go bad right away though, may be an hour if the room is very warm and in an open container.
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I say about 2 hours , I throw anything like that away , the seconds it feels a little warm - Yucky
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Regular fresh milk is pastuerised to remove any food-poisoning bacteria, but food spoilage bacteria are still present in the milk. Generally I would not drink the milk if it was at room temp as it is not as nice, but in terms of spoilage there is no exact time as the temperature of the environment it is in makes a very big difference as does the initial load (amount) of bacteria in the milk. I would discard it after two hours just to be sure - although there would be no detectable off smells after this time in average conditions.
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two hours at room temperature is long enough for the milk to start souring. I personally would toss it out if it's been around an hour and a half, and the milk starts to feel warm.
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It also depends on what country you are in and what season it is. I'm from Australia and if you leave milk out for an hour or two it can get warm very quick. I find the best way to tell if it is bad or not is if the bottle has gone warm or if the bottle has expanded at all (if it is puffier than usual). But I spend a few years in Britain and I was really shocked to see people leaving milk and margarine out overnight! It can get so cold up Britain that leaving milk on the table overnight is the same as putting it in the fridge, when you get to it in the morning it still has icy cold drops all over it! But in Australia if you leave even margarine out over night it will have gone slushy and oily and the milk would have soiled. But if you have a working fridge then there is no excuse to not put the milk in it.
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It may not spoil, it could sour first and that is often useful for baking and cooking. I often set some milk aside, with a little lemon juice or maybe some vinegar to help it along, even overnight. IN the morning it's ready to make some buttermilk pancakes. But you can keep regular milk out and it can get warm and you can still chill it again and it's fine to drink. It's not as fragile as you think.
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