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Hot Food In The Fridge?

GNC

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Mythconceptions in the current FT is about letting hot food cool before you put it in the fridge - everyone does it, you would think, but apparently it's a bad idea because the cooling leaves the comestibles prone to infection. On the other hand, doesn't putting hot food in the fridge mean it messes up its insides for a while? It has to compensate for the heat, and uses more electricity, doesn't it? So either you risk infection, or you have a higher energy bill (and carbon footprint). Is that right?
 
Mythconceptions in the current FT is about letting hot food cool before you put it in the fridge - everyone does it, you would think, but apparently it's a bad idea because the cooling leaves the comestibles prone to infection. On the other hand, doesn't putting hot food in the fridge mean it messes up its insides for a while? It has to compensate for the heat, and uses more electricity, doesn't it? So either you risk infection, or you have a higher energy bill (and carbon footprint). Is that right?
For years, my Mum has been cooking food (i.e. a chicken or some other meat) and then letting it cool down on the table while covered over with a bowl. When it's cool enough, she transfers it to the fridge, where the cold kills off any remaining bugs.
No problems, ever.
 
We are suppose to cut the food up into smaller pieces, then place them in a container and if possible into some cold water to cool it down faster, then cover and place in fridge, if you put it in the fridge hot the temperature of the fridge rises, not good
 
My mother taught me it was OK to leave warm cooked food out until it had cooled sufficiently to be stowed away in the fridge, but it needed to be covered (or even better - sealed up) in the mean time.
 
I've known several professional chefs who also will not put hot food in the fridge until it is closer to room temperature. For one thing, moisture will leave it while it cools. Hot bread into the fridge does have more of a tendency to get soggy especially if closely wrapped. On the other hand, what little I know about health department rules say that once the temperature gets below a certain point the item must be cooled below 40 asap, especially meats, otherwise the gradual cooling temperature encourages bacteria. Certainly needs to be covered. Someone here must have a food safety certificate.....
 
How you are going to consume the food is important too. You don't really want to let chicken cool down gradually, stick it in the fridge and then eat it cold next day. Nuke it. The best thing is to let it sit for about an hour after cooking, then into the fridge (for the reason mentioned above, to avoid raising temperature of fridge)
Anything you've immersed in hot water, like veg, should be "refreshed" (ie. cooled with running cold water) asap and stored chilled, or it will continue to cook inside. Rice should be refreshed and stored chilled, because if left to cool naturally, bacteria present will merrily multiply and might very well give you a serious case of the squirts.
 
I've heard you should be careful reheating pasta, but I do that all the time because I'm bad at working out a correct portion for myself and have some left over for the next day. Maybe I'm dicing with death?
 
I've heard you should be careful reheating pasta, but I do that all the time because I'm bad at working out a correct portion for myself and have some left over for the next day. Maybe I'm dicing with death?

as with all reheating, i tend to go for nuke it, then nuke it some more. reheated pasta tends to go a but rubbery anyway so i don't think you can make it worse. or maybe thats just my 'cooking'!
 
What I do is (this is getting a bit Delia Smith), take the pasta I had the day before and put a little cheese over it, then stick it in the oven, et voila, one pasta bake. Haven't died from it yet.
 
As I understand it, it's more about how long the food stays in the "Danger Zone".

Kidding aside, from Wikipedia: "The temperature range in which food-borne bacteria can grow is known as the danger zone. Food safety agencies, such as the United States' Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSiIS), define the danger zone as roughly 5 to 63 °C (41 to 145 °F).[1][2][3] The FSIS stipulates that potentially hazardous food should not be stored at temperatures in this range in order to prevent foodborne illness (for example, a refrigerator's temperature must be kept below 4 °C (40 °F)[4]), and that food that remains in this zone for more than two hours should not be consumed.[5] Foodborne microorganisms grow much faster in the middle of the zone, at temperatures between 21 and 47 °C (70 and 117 °F).[6] "

So this can affect things differently. Soups, for example, like to stay hot, so there are actually giant plastic spikes filled with water that get frozen that professional kitchens use to cool down soups super-quick.

Basically, if you seal some food with plastic wrap and put it in the 'fridge, the seal also helps keep in the heat, so it's in the Danger Zone for longer, which can result in bacterial formation.
 
Where does this leave the Tupperware question - to Tupperware or not to Tupperware?
 
chop it put it in tupperwear then , no lid, place it in some cold water
 
I worked for a few years in a chicken processing factory .

The chickens were cooked in steam ovens on large racks. about half a ton at a time.

They came out of the ovens steaming hot. The procedure was to let the rack stand until the steaming had stopped then wheel them into blast chillers that quickly brought the temperature down to around 4C.
 
Tragic.
2 days is the absolute max I'd leave food, but it would have to be refrigerated. Leaving something out on a worktop for 5 days and then eating it is just asking for serious trouble.
 
Yes, I wouldn't eat anything that had been lying out for five days, pasta or otherwise - even refrigerated or otherwise. You might as well eat something you found dropped in the street.
 
Surely meats or milky things are more vulnerable. Veggies grow in hot fields, then just ripen, ripen, ripen, then rot.
 
I worked for a few years in a chicken processing factory .

The chickens were cooked in steam ovens on large racks. about half a ton at a time.

They came out of the ovens steaming hot. The procedure was to let the rack stand until the steaming had stopped then wheel them into blast chillers that quickly brought the temperature down to around 4C.

I worked in those blasted blast chiller tunnels for a few years - you had to watch out because if your hand happened to touch the wire framed baskets as skin could quickly stick to it.
As regards to keeping food overnight in the fridge; I always use a bowl of cold water under a pot/bowl etc, to cool down the pot as quickly as possible to room temp before placing it in fridge with the lid on, or covered. And always make sure the food is well cooked next day, I never keep pre-cooked stuff in fridge for any longer than overnight.
 
I think one reason not to put hot food in the fridge is that it raises the temperature inside and increases the chance of bacteria incubating in the food that's already there
 
I think one reason not to put hot food in the fridge is that it raises the temperature inside and increases the chance of bacteria incubating in the food that's already there
Most Definitely 'James_H.'
 
Sid,

You're mixing up blast chillers with blast freezers.

A blast chiller will only take the food down to between 1C and 4C. The same as your fridge should be.

a blast freezer takes food down to a minimum of -18C. and preferably much lower.

It is the speed of the cooling that is critical. One has to get through the layer around 30C to 50C as quick as possible as that is when the nasties are most active.

Our blast freezers would, on a good day, get down to -38C. No one was allowed to go in them alone because if you fell or had an accident, you would soon succumb to frostbite and then hypothermia. The very effective cold store clothes only work for so long.
 
Sid,

You're mixing up blast chillers with blast freezers.

A blast chiller will only take the food down to between 1C and 4C. The same as your fridge should be.

a blast freezer takes food down to a minimum of -18C. and preferably much lower.

It is the speed of the cooling that is critical. One has to get through the layer around 30C to 50C as quick as possible as that is when the nasties are most active.

Our blast freezers would, on a good day, get down to -38C. No one was allowed to go in them alone because if you fell or had an accident, you would soon succumb to frostbite and then hypothermia. The very effective cold store clothes only work for so long.

Well 'INT21,' all I know is that at one end of the tunnels they used to load large wheeled crates of chicken legs/thighs/wings, etc and come out not that long after stiff-as-a-board the other end. We were issued with asbestos type gloves which only lasted a short time before getting pulled to pieces and holed, as handling many wire crates during the night (night shift hours) used to pull them into shreds after only a short period of time. Just about the worst job I've ever worked with! "Orrible!"
 
I can sympathize with you about the 'orrible' job aspect.

Fortunately I didn't have to do that. Only check the temperature of some products and wheel them into the chillers.

I was part of factory maintenance and had to monitor the temps and refrigeration units. A well as keep an eye on the rest of the factory.

The chickens that were for immediate stripping went straight from the steam ovens to the stripping tables. It was much easier to strip the meat from the carcases when they were hot.
 
There's a thread round these parts which has lots of, admittedly anecdotal, accounts of people in warmer climes leaving rice out in ambient temperatures for hours before reusing it. Few ill effects reported.

I don't doubt it, and I have done many many stupid things of all kinds, yet am still walking about unharmed - but I wouldn't recommend anyone follow my lead. I guess it depends on your constitution, whether you've spent your whole life eating dodgy food, and a heaped tablespoon of luck. One day they may suffer no ill-effects, the next they may be shitting through the eye of a needle, terminally - in which case the cause will be easily identified.
I reckon I'll stick with the advice given by learned medical types rather than bicycle-clip salesmen (think about it!) ;)
 
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