If I have been asked this question once in my career, I have been asked a million times. And every time I answer, I start by saying: “why do you want to know?” I know ask to be pretentious be rather because different people ask for different reasons.
For example, a professional chef may have reasons for asking that a home cook will not. Or a chef that operates a food truck may ask for different reasons than a home cook trying to break into the commercial industry.
The final answer always comes to a very basic principle: keep food as cold as possible for as long as possible and if the food is cooked, keep it hot for no more than 4 hours.
Keeping food safe all comes to down to what you can control; and what you control is TIME and TEMPERATURE. You control how long food is out on the counter before it is cooked and how long it stays in service after it is cooked.
Bacteria long average warm temperatures and the longer they are in those warm temperatures, the faster they grow to harmful levels where eating just a small amount of the food item could result in a very upset stomach or worse.
In this blog, I will explore and share ways for you to keep food safe and out of the “temperature danger zone” regardless if you are a professional chef or the home enthusiast.
Question for you to consider: What or Who is FAT – TOM?
Until next time, be safe and check that food temperature.
Patt Says