After a Twitter exchange with ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
saracen77 about chocolate mousse this morning, I got to thinking about how we think about food contamination generally versus the science involved. In general, we've internalized (or ignore!) a lot of the warnings without knowing why the warnings are really there. So cobbling together what I learned when I got my foodhandler's license several years ago and what I learned in microbiology a couple of years ago, here are some thoughts about common misconceptions in food safety wiith the caveat that my foodhandler's license has expired so some of the standards (in CT specifically and the US generally) may have changed and I wouldn't know it.
Two key facts that will get referred to throughout: while there are bacteria that can thrive in Antarctica and lava flows, the ones that are dangerous to humans are the ones that thrive between the temps of 40F-140F, roughly 4C-60C. Therefore, fact 2, any high risk food (mostly meat, eggs, and dairy, some veg) that spends four or more hours in that temperature range is considered unsafe. That's four total hours in its existence, from the time it was either killed or removed from its living source until it enters your mouth, not necessarily consecutive time. Also, this includes when it cools down after being cooked. Not all bacteria are killed in cooking, some leave spores that can start breeding once temps get back into the danger zone.
( Raw Eggs )
( Meat )
saracen77 about chocolate mousse this morning, I got to thinking about how we think about food contamination generally versus the science involved. In general, we've internalized (or ignore!) a lot of the warnings without knowing why the warnings are really there. So cobbling together what I learned when I got my foodhandler's license several years ago and what I learned in microbiology a couple of years ago, here are some thoughts about common misconceptions in food safety wiith the caveat that my foodhandler's license has expired so some of the standards (in CT specifically and the US generally) may have changed and I wouldn't know it.Two key facts that will get referred to throughout: while there are bacteria that can thrive in Antarctica and lava flows, the ones that are dangerous to humans are the ones that thrive between the temps of 40F-140F, roughly 4C-60C. Therefore, fact 2, any high risk food (mostly meat, eggs, and dairy, some veg) that spends four or more hours in that temperature range is considered unsafe. That's four total hours in its existence, from the time it was either killed or removed from its living source until it enters your mouth, not necessarily consecutive time. Also, this includes when it cools down after being cooked. Not all bacteria are killed in cooking, some leave spores that can start breeding once temps get back into the danger zone.
( Raw Eggs )
( Meat )
