Pie is a good example: fruit pie tends to keep for a good while at room temperature. I have found many sites which stridently claim this not to be the case, and many grocery stores that leave their bakery pies at room temp for about three days (even psycho Mrs. Cookwell says 2 days is fine). I'm siding with the grocery stores. Nut pies tend to last longer still, because they're drier: the presence of dairy and eggs is counteracted by the higher concentration of sugar.
Likewise cake, though it can vary depending on your frosting...The more things besides fat and sugar in your frosting, the more it needs to be refrigerated. In most cases cake will stay edible longer than you'd want to eat it. Again, grocery stores only bother to refrigerate decorated cakes, or ones with cream cheese icing.
Most store bought condiments are fine at room temperature. Obviously not mayonnaise, or anything creamy, but ketchup, mustard, A-1, worstershire...They last a good long time unrefrigerated. Likewise soy sauce, fish sauce, and some of the more popular asian condiments.
I've never seen a pepper sauce (e.g. Tabasco) that needs refrigeration, and they'll last for years, though the color starts going off after a while.
There is no bacterial risk to leaving fruits and vegetables out, but this will dramatically increase the rate of spoilage. The exceptions are root vegetables, and bananas. Root vegetables will last a long time in a cool dark place, so just lump 'em in your garage if you're not going to eat them in the next week or two. And bananas will go south at the same rate regardless (though you can freeze them for future banana bread).
Fresh eggs (like, straight from the chicken) will last a couple of weeks without refrigeration (make sure they're not fertilized, or you may wake up to find baby chickens in your kitchen). The rule of thumb is "Every day unrefrigerated is like 5 days refrigerated." Once eggs are cracked, you should use them immediately.
I'd trust store bought eggs left out on the counter to eat, though its not good to let refrigerated eggs get warm again. Eggs have a wide array of natural antimicrobial tendencies, though the processing store bought eggs go through removes some of this. (citation). An easy way to test for internal contamination is to see if the egg floats in water. If it floats, toss it.
Bacon grease keeps a long time unrefrigerated, as does any sort of fat really, as long as it's strained and filtered. With fats you're more worried about them going rancid, which is a function of light and air (its a type of oxidation), so store your fat in a dark place, in a sealed container. (citation)
Butter can last several days unrefrigerated (it should be covered). I'd say as much as a week, but I have no way of knowing because it never lasts that long. It's much more likely to oxidize (see above) and go rancid than to pick up a significant bacterial colony.
The USDA has this to say on it:
Storing Leftovers
One of the most common causes of foodborne illness is improper cooling of cooked foods. Because bacteria are everywhere, even after food is cooked to a safe internal temperature, they can be reintroduced to the food and then reproduce. For this reason leftovers must be put in shallow containers for quick cooling and refrigerated within 2 hours.
You'll find similar statements from government agencies around the world. The safe limit for raw or cooked food is 2 hours in the danger zone (40-140° F or 4.4-60° C).
If you're a restaurant owner or cook, you must follow this rule, hold hot foods above 60° C and quick-cool other foods before refrigerating. If you are not working in a professional capacity then you are not legally required to follow it, but if you are serving guests then it would be irresponsible (and possibly actionable, if someone gets sick) to do otherwise.
If you're an individual serving only yourself, then take whatever liberties and break whatever rules you want; it's your food, and your body. But there's no table or chart anyone can give you; there's no single specific point at which a food transitions from "not entirely safe" to "probably will kill you" because it depends entirely on the food, the environment, your immune system, and a plethora of other variables. The rule is 2 hours, period; any longer and there is some non-trivial risk to your health.
Some hints, tips, and warnings:
The 2-hour rule is a conservative estimate with a safety margin. Don't ask what that margin is. It's like asking what the "real" speed limit is on a posted road; you might know from experience, but it could change depending on circumstances and exceeding it by any amount means you take your chances and accept the risks.
Don't put large, hot items (such as an entire pot of soup or chili) directly into the fridge. The residual heat will warm up and potentially spoil other items in the refrigerator.
To quickly cool large cooked items, use an ice-water bath and/or divide them into small containers. (Note: Don't use an ice-water bath for cast iron.)
Don't assume that re-cooking an improperly-stored item will make it safe. Most bacteria produce protein toxins, which are actually the primary agents responsible for food poisoning, and several of these toxins are heat-resistant. Cooking will not kill or inactivate these toxins and eating the re-cooked food will still make you sick.
Don't assume that cooking "kills everything" and that a cooked food or cooking surface is absolutely sterile. Cooking kills enough to make the food safe to eat, but some organisms - such as bacterial spores from bacillus and clostridium - can survive the cooking process and immediately start producing more bacteria. Sous-vide bags, crock pots, etc. are not safe environments for cooked food in the temperature danger zone.
Best Answer
The food safety guidelines are based on scientific & mathematical calculations along the lines of:
Given an initial bacteria count of X they will under the given conditions mulitply to a number of Y amd have produced Z [unit] of toxins.
Now what to do with these values?
We use them like seat belts or helmets. Not wearing a seat belt will not automatically kill you, only if you are involved in an accident you are much more likely to suffer severe injury or death without it. Still, nobody could responsibly recommend ignoring a seatbelt, knowing that accidents do happen. But with food safety, many are willing to skip their seat belt, so to speak.
One very common misconception is that contaminated food can be detected by smell, looks or taste. Yes, some kind of spoilage is obvious, but many, especially the more dangerous ones, are not "visible". One very prominent example is Salmonella. Note that many toxins are not destroyed by cooking, more details in our canonical post.
I can guarantee that people in your country have issues with cases of foodborne illnesses - all countries do. You need to keep in mind that
Foodborne illnesses need not become apparent immediately or shortly after a meal. The symptoms of Salmonellae, for example, might start as late as 72 hours after infection. It is likely that the connection between a sudden bout of sickness and a meal eaten three days prior is simply overlooked.
In healthy adults infections may pass unnoticed or cause only mild sympotms like indigestion. The human body can handle a certain amount of bacteria or toxins, the individual levels of tolerance vary, though. So children, elderly people or those with a compromised imune system are more likely to suffer and have a higher chance of severe complications or death. The given safety guidelines are calculated to protect these groups as well. Also note that often the side-effects are as dangerous as the pathogens themselves, diarrhea being a classic example.
There is no way of determining the amount of bacteria present in a specific dish, piece of meat or other food prone to spoiling - unless you get a lab involved. The values used to calculate safe thesholds contain a certain safety margin. Your dish could contain fewer bacteria to start with or if any were present, they might not have multiplied that much. (But they might as well have, we can't safely know.) The two/four hours rule simply means that the food will remain in the safe range, not that it will be spoiled afterwards.
So what now?
It is entirely up to you to whether you choose to drive with or without seatbelt or helmet. Make an informed devision and consider the welfare of those weaker than you. What you as a healthy adult can stomach (pun intended), might be fatal to a young child or weak elderly person.
Only a few days ago the WHO published a news release on foodborne diseases:
(Source)