As long as you don’t plan on eating it, you can go ahead and prepare it without any worries.One possible exception to this rule is if the water’s initial temperature was at or below that of a refrigerator.There is a lag period of two hours before bacteria go into exponential multiplication when the temperature of the meal hits the ″danger zone,″ which is between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit (or 4 and 60 degrees Celsius).