what do the temperature ranges for commercial refrigeration refer to

Refrigerator Thermometers - Cold Facts virtually Food Safety

Impress & Share (PDF: 566KB)

En Español

Chilling stored foods to proper temperatures is one of the best means to boring the growth of dangerous bacteria.

A Refrigerator Thermometer Tin Make a Big Difference

When it comes to protecting yourself and your family from foodborne disease, one of your virtually effective tools is the kitchen refrigerator. In fact, at room temperature, the numbers of leaner that cause foodborne sickness can double every xx minutes! Chilling foods to proper temperatures is one of the best ways to slow the growth of these leaner.

To ensure that your fridge is doing its job, it's important to keep its temperature at xl °F or below; the freezer should be at 0 °F. Since few refrigerator controls show bodily temperatures, using an inexpensive freestanding appliance thermometer will allow you to monitor the temperature and adjust the setting of the refrigerator and/or freezer if necessary. Buy one for the refrigerator, i for the freezer, and check them often.

Items on this page:

• Fridge Strategies
• Quick Chill
• In Example of Disaster
• More than Than an "Upset Stomach"
• Safety Nutrient Handling: Iv Unproblematic Steps

---

Fridge Strategies: Keeping Food Prophylactic

In improver to keeping the temperature in your fridge at 40 °F, you can accept additional steps to make sure your refrigerated foods stay equally safe as possible.

• Avoid "Overpacking." Cold air must broadcast around refrigerated foods to keep them properly chilled.
• Wipe Up Spills Immediately. In improver to helping reduce the growth of the Listeria bacteria (which can grow at refrigerated temperatures), getting rid of spills — peculiarly drips from thawing meats — volition help preclude "cross-contamination," where bacteria from one food spread to some other.
• Keep Information technology Covered: Store refrigerated foods in covered containers or sealed storage bags, and check leftovers daily for spoilage.
• Check Expiration Dates On Foods. If food is past its "use by" date, discard it. If you're non sure or if the food looks questionable, the elementary rule is: "When in uncertainty, throw it out."
• Make clean The Fridge Out Oft. Make this task part of your kitchen cleaning routine!

Quick Chill

Whether you're dealing with leftovers or just-purchased foods, it's important to get foods that need refrigeration into your fridge quickly. Leaving perishable foods out for 2 hours or more allows bacteria to multiply speedily — and can put you at serious risk of contracting foodborne disease.

• Groceries: When yous become dwelling house from the grocery store, put your refrigerated items away as quickly as possible. Never let raw meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, or produce that requires refrigeration to sit down at room temperature for more than than 2 hours; the limit is one 60 minutes if the air temperature is above xc °F. (If you're not certain whether certain produce requires refrigeration, ask your grocer.) Also, continue in heed that your car is probably fifty-fifty hotter than typical room temperature, so it'south important not to leave groceries in your motorcar longer than admittedly necessary — and never more than than ii hours (or 1 60 minutes on a hot day).
• Leftovers: These need to exist refrigerated or frozen inside 2 hours, likewise. Despite what some people believe, putting hot nutrient in the fridge doesn't damage the appliance. To help hot food cool faster, split up leftovers into smaller containers before putting them in the refrigerator.
• Doggie Bags and Take-out Foods: Again, the "2-60 minutes rule" applies to carry-abode foods. Leftovers from take-out or restaurant meals need to go into the refrigerator within 2 hours at about. If you can't become habitation within ii hours afterward eating out, don't request a doggie bag.
• Marinated Foods: Ever go along food in the fridge while information technology's marinating. Leaner can multiply chop-chop in foods left to marinate at room temperature. Also, recall this tip for marinating safely: never reuse marinating liquid as a sauce unless you lot bring it to a rapid boil first.

Thaw with Care

Because bacteria tin multiply so rapidly in unrefrigerated food, it'due south simply unsafe to let food thaw at room temperature. If left unrefrigerated, some organisms can create toxins that will survive the cooking process even if the nutrient is cooked to temperatures that impale the bacteria themselves.

There are three ways to thaw safely: in the refrigerator, in cold water, and in the microwave. If you thaw food in cold water, change the h2o every half hour to make sure information technology stays common cold. Foods thawed in the microwave must be cooked immediately after thawing.

In Case of Disaster...

If your home loses power, how do you know what foods you tin can safely keep and swallow?

• If you have acceptable alert that yous may lose power, freeze water in quart size sealable plastic food storage bags and place them in your freezer and refrigerator to assist food stay cold when the power goes out.
• If you do lose power, keep the doors to your fridge and freezer closed as much as possible to keep foods cold.
• Before using whatsoever foods, check your refrigerator and freezer thermometers. If the refrigerator is still at or below twoscore °F, or the nutrient has been higher up xl °F for only 2 hours or less, it should be safe to eat.
• Frozen food that still has ice crystals or is at 40 °F or beneath (to exist certain, cheque the appliance thermometer or utilise a food thermometer to check each private food parcel) can be safely refrozen or cooked.
• If you're unsure how long the temperature has been at or above 40 °F, don't take a take a chance. Throw the food out.

How Long Is Too Long?

Even when your fridge and freezer are chilling foods at the right temperatures, and you've followed all the other rules for safe storage, there are limits to how long you can safely store foods in the refrigerator. (Foods will stay safety indefinitely in the freezer, just quality/sense of taste of the food may exist affected.)

More Than an "Upset Breadbasket"

Foodborne Affliction Is Serious Business

Foodborne diseases are far more serious than many people realize. The Federal government estimates that there are about 48 million cases of foodborne illness annually — the equivalent of sickening i in 6 Americans each year. And each year these illnesses effect in an estimated 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths.

• Salmonella, for case, causes millions of cases of foodborne illness annually and is the leading cause of foodborne deaths.
• E. coli O157:H7 is a bacterium that can produce a mortiferous toxin. Infections from E. coli O157:H7 are estimated to exist between 20,000 and 40,000 cases per year.
• The Clostridium botulinum bacterium produces a mortiferous toxin that causes botulism, a illness characterized by muscle paralysis.
• Illnesses caused by Campylobacter, noroviruses, Shigella, and other organisms can create severe health problems, particularly for children, the elderly, and people with chronic illness or suppressed immune systems.

Yous may exist surprised to larn that food can make you lot very sick even when it doesn't look, smell, or taste spoiled. That's because foodborne illnesses are acquired past pathogenic bacteria, which are different from the spoilage bacteria that brand foods "become bad."

Many pathogenic organisms are present in raw or undercooked meat, poultry, seafood, milk, and eggs; unclean water; and even on fruits and vegetables. Keeping these foods properly chilled will boring the growth of bacteria; following the other recommended food handling practices (clean your hands, surfaces and produce, separate raw foods from prepare-to-consume foods, and cook to safe temperatures) volition farther reduce your take a chance of getting ill.

Rubber Food Handling: Four Uncomplicated Steps

CLEAN
Wash hands and surfaces often

• Launder your easily with warm water and soap for at to the lowest degree 20 seconds before and later handling food and after using the bathroom, changing diapers, and handling pets.
• Launder your cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and counter tops with hot soapy water after preparing each nutrient particular.
• Consider using paper towels to clean up kitchen surfaces. If you use cloth towels, launder them often in the hot cycle.
• Rinse fresh fruits and vegetables under running tap water, including those with skins and rinds that are not eaten. Scrub business firm produce with a clean produce brush.
• With canned goods, remember to make clean lids before opening.

SEPARATE
Separate raw meats from other foods

• Separate raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs from other foods in your grocery shopping cart, grocery bags, and fridge.
• Employ one cutting board for fresh produce and a separate one for raw meat, poultry, and seafood.
• Never place cooked food on a plate that previously held raw meat, poultry, seafood, or eggs unless the plate has been washed in hot, soapy h2o.
• Don't reuse marinades used on raw foods unless you lot bring them to a eddy beginning.

COOK
Cook to the right temperature

• Color and texture are unreliable indicators of safety. Using a food thermometer is the simply way to ensure the rubber of meat, poultry, seafood, and egg products for all cooking methods. These foods must be cooked to a rubber minimum internal temperature to destroy any harmful bacteria.
• Cook eggs until the yolk and white are firm. Just use recipes in which eggs are cooked or heated thoroughly.
• When cooking in a microwave oven, comprehend food, stir, and rotate for fifty-fifty cooking. If there is no turntable, rotate the dish past hand once or twice during cooking. E'er let standing time, which completes the cooking, before checking the internal temperature with a food thermometer.
• Bring sauces, soups and gravy to a boil when reheating.

CHILL
Refrigerate foods promptly

• Use an appliance thermometer to be sure the temperature is consistently 40° F or beneath and the freezer temperature is 0° F or below.
• Refrigerate or freeze meat, poultry, eggs, seafood, and other perishables inside two hours of cooking or purchasing. Refrigerate inside 1 hour if the temperature outside is above 90° F.
• Never thaw food at room temperature, such every bit on the counter acme. There are three rubber ways to defrost nutrient: in the refrigerator, in common cold water, and in the microwave. Food thawed in cold water or in the microwave should be cooked immediately.
• Always marinate food in the refrigerator.
• Divide large amounts of leftovers into shallow containers for quicker cooling in the refrigerator.

winterdris1946.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/refrigerator-thermometers-cold-facts-about-food-safety

Share this post