By Thermal Cookware
How can you be sure the food you prepare and eat is safe when travelling?
We all have doubts sometimes whether the food we stored, prepared, cooked or cooled is still safe to eat when we are travelling.
We do not have the same kitchen facilities as we do at home so we are constantly juggling our food in an attempt to keep it hot or cold or even just the flies away from it.
The Australian Food Safety Standards have been devised primarily for the commercial handling of food, whether that food is to be sold or given away, and is therefore a good guideline when considering the safe parameters for food handling for your family and friends own consumption.
Basically the rules are:
- Hot food should be kept at 60 degrees or over and cold food should be kept at 5 degrees or less.
- Between the temperatures of 5 and 60 degrees, potentially hazardous food is susceptible to growing bacteria, resulting in stomach upsets or food poisoning.
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The following is taken from the Food Standards Australia website www.foodstandards.gov.au
Examples of potentially hazardous foods:
- raw and cooked meat or foods containing meat, such as casseroles, curries and lasagna;
- dairy products, for example, milk, custard and dairy based desserts;
- seafood (excluding live seafood);
- processed fruits and vegetables, for example, salads;
- cooked rice and pasta;
- foods containing eggs, beans, nuts or other protein rich foods, such as quiche and soy products;
- foods that contain these foods, such as sandwiches and rolls;
Cooling Potentially Hazardous Food
If you cook potentially hazardous food that you intend to cool and use later, you need to cool the food to five degrees or colder as quickly as possible. There may be food poisoning bacteria in the food even though it has bee cooked. Faster cooling times limit the time when these bacteria are able to grow or form toxins.
The standards require food to be cooled from 60 degrees to 21 degrees in a maximum of two hours and from 21 degrees to five degrees within a further maximum period of four hours. If you don't know how fast your food is cooling, use a portable thermometer to measure the warmest part of the food – usually in the centre.
To chill food quickly, break it up into smaller portions in shallow containers. Take care not to contaminate the food as you do it.
Reheating Previously Cooked And Cooled Potentially Hazardous Food
If you reheat previously cooked and cooled potentially hazardous food, you must reheat it rapidly to 60 degrees or hotter. Ideally, you should aim to reheat food to 60 degrees within a maximum of two hours to minimise the amount of time that food is at temperatures that encourage the growth of bacteria or formation of toxins.
For information about Thermal Cookware visit www.thermalcookware.com.au. |
