Safe Food Cooling

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Food, Cooling

Over 60 percent of all foodborne illness can be traced to inadequate cooling, meaning not cooling hot foods quickly enough to the proper refrigerated temperatures.

It can take up to six days for a full five gallon pail to cool completely to less than 41 F.

Large quantities of food should be split up into in four-inch deep pans and refrigerated.

Rapid cooling equipment is also acceptable as is placing the food pan in an ice bath or adding ice as an ingredient to the food to cool it.

Cooling should occur as quickly as possible. Checking the internal temperature of the food is the only way to be sure that it is the correct temperature.

The requirements for refrigerated cooling are that the food should go from 140 F to 70 F in two hours and then from 70 F to 40 F in four hours.

The total refrigerated cooling time must not exceed six hours or the food must be discarded.

Any other time unrefrigerated food stays in the danger zone (41 - 140 F) for four hours, it must be discarded.

Raw food may be handled by cooks with bare hands.

However, any ready to eat food, except for washing uncut fruits and vegetables, should only be handled with gloves or utensils.

A frequent source of contamination is the food service employee who contaminates food by touching it with bare hands while plating or presenting the food.

In general, food employees should use suitable utensils instead of their bare hands to handle ready-to-eat food.