Food Handling Safety: Cooling and Reheating
One of the main sources of food-borne illnesses are from the improper cooling and reheating of food. The US Department of Health has regulated the proper procedures on how to properly reheat and cool leftover food in the household to prevent the possibilities of food-borne illnesses. Potentially hazardous foods such as raw grilled meat, poultry meat and other types of food requires a strict and quick process of cooling. The method is to achieve cooling the food down to at least 70 degrees F in a matter of two hours, and to further cool it from 70 degrees F to 40 degrees F in the next 4 hours. It’s been known that bacteria in meat or food can grow between temperatures of 45 degrees and 120 degrees F, that is why cooling the food rapidly to the safe temperature where the bacteria will freeze is important to avoid its spreading.
Cooling:
There are numerous way one can rapidly cool meat or food, but it is vital to know which method or combination of methods will be more effective in cooling a specific type of food.
· Gravies, sauces, stir soup and chilies are to be placed in a container and submerged in an ice water bath. It is vital that the depth of the ice water is equal or possibly greater than the volume of food in the container.
· It is important to cut food such as roasts meat into small parts and proportions after cooking or before cooling.
· Special Refrigerators such as “rapid Chill Units” are best to be utilized for they are designed to cool food faster than the typical refrigerator. These units could prove to be very useful especially when dealing with large quantities of food that is in need of cooling.
Reheating:
Reheating food, particularly the food you have in cool storage must be dealt upon with extreme care. For the reason that reheating cooled food is one of the major causes of food-borne illnesses particularly when not done properly. The State Sanitary Code has already issued a regulation, which requires the reheating of potentially hazardous food must be reheated to over 165 degrees F in rapid process. This means that when reheating cooled food, it is very essential to do it quickly upon taking it out from the freezing and should be reheated instantly. This food handler procedure proves too destroy the bacteria that may have already spread in the food from the cooling process and avoid the possibility of food poisoning or food-borne illnesses.
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