Friday Food Safety MYTHBUSTERS- #1
Food Safety Quiz- test your knowledge!
It is noon. You just made a pot of homemade vegetable beef soup for 7pm dinner. From a safety standpoint, is it OK to leave the soup out on your stovetop until you and your family sit down to eat?
a. Yes, because you should not put hot food in the refrigerator. Just be sure to reheat the soup to boiling just before serving it.
b. Yes, because the acid in the tomatoes will keep harmful bacteria from growing.
c. No, food left sitting out of refrigeration at room temperature for two or more hours is unsafe to eat. It’s best to refrigerate any food – including hot items — immediately.
d. No, leaving the soup out could tempt family members to eat it and you will end up with no dinner.
Food Safety Myth: You should not put hot food in the refrigerator.
Fact: Hot foods can be placed directly in the refrigerator. A large pot of food like soup or stew should be divided into small portions and put in shallow containers for quicker cooling in the refrigerator. If you leave food out to cool and forget about it, then toss it! Food is not safe to eat after sitting out at room temperature for more than two hours. Bacteria grow rapidly in the “danger zone” between 40 °F and 140 °F. Always follow the “two hour rule” – eat perishable foods or refrigerate them within two hours at a refrigerator temperature of 40 °F or below. And, if perishable food is left out in a room or outdoors where the temperature is 90 °F or higher, food should be refrigerated or eaten within just one hour — or discarded after one hour has passed.
The correct answer to the quiz was C- did you get it right? For more information about home food handling for September Food Safety Month, check out the fightbac.org website from the Partnership for Food Safety Education. Watch for more food safety myths and facts next Friday!
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