Potentially Hazardous Foods
StephenPBarrett
Adviser
I am not a chef, however the food industry has played a major role in my life as my father was a Sous Chef and my mother worked at several different restaurants, fast food places and diners. I followed suite and became a cook so although I do not have the qualifications of a chef I am ServSafe certified. This means that I know a lot about properly serving food safely without the risk of really scary illnesses such as e coli and salmonella. With this knowledge I am capable of making a short and simply guide to properly storing your potentially hazardous foods.
What are the PHFs? (Potentially Hazardous Foods)
Basically a PHF is any food that will go bad if left out and eventually rot even in your refrigerator. All PHFs contain protein and moisture. Here is a list of most of them:
Of course any meal you make using any of these will be a PHF whether it is a sandwich or casserole. Many store bought products such as condiments like ketchup and mustard have ingredients derived from PHFs but because of the amount of preservatives added to them do not need to be refrigerated. Always check anything you bought from the store for instructions on storage.
Bacteria
Anytime a PHF is in the range of 5° C (41° F) to 60° C (167° F) for an extended period of time (2 hours at 60° C, 4 at 5° C) it becomes a breeding ground for bacteria. This is what causes people to become sick with food illnesses. If you have "food poisoning" then you'll know it. The symptoms of a food related illness are: vomiting, fever, diarrhea, aching muscles, headache and stomach cramps. E coli generally passes after a week or two; if you think you have salmonella check your stool for blood. Some varieties of salmonella can cause typhoid fever which can sometimes be fatal. To ensure that you kill all bacteria when cooking food the core temperature of the food must reach 70° C (158° F) for at least 2 minutes. This is a good reason to own a cooking thermometer.
Storage
You should of course store your PHFs in (where else?) your refrigerator. In order to stop the spread of bacteria the optimum temperature that you should keep in your fridge is 4° C (40° F). At this temperature the bacteria cannot survive but even one degree higher and you might as well have left your food on the table. When deciding where to place your PHFs in the fridge there are a few things that you have to take into consideration. Stacking unlike PHFs is a big "no no". You should never put a container of beef directly on top of a container of tuna or a mixed salad. While the bacteria cannot survive in 4° C it doesn't die immediately and if your container isn't airtight it can easily contaminate the other PHF. Keep seafood, dairy and beef on different shelves or in different compartments of your refrigerator. If you don't have enough room then it's probably time to clean out the leftovers. Most refrigerators have a built in crisper drawer or two for keeping vegetables. Here are examples of a properly and improperly stocked refrigerator:
Proper
Improper
That is all for now. Hope this guide helped you in some way or that you at least learned something from it; thanks for reading anyway if you didn't.
What are the PHFs? (Potentially Hazardous Foods)
Basically a PHF is any food that will go bad if left out and eventually rot even in your refrigerator. All PHFs contain protein and moisture. Here is a list of most of them:
- Meat
- Poultry
- Dairy Products
- Eggs
- Vegetables
- Cooked pasta
- Seafood
- Tofu
- Heat Treated Vegetables (rice, beans, ect)
Of course any meal you make using any of these will be a PHF whether it is a sandwich or casserole. Many store bought products such as condiments like ketchup and mustard have ingredients derived from PHFs but because of the amount of preservatives added to them do not need to be refrigerated. Always check anything you bought from the store for instructions on storage.
Bacteria
Anytime a PHF is in the range of 5° C (41° F) to 60° C (167° F) for an extended period of time (2 hours at 60° C, 4 at 5° C) it becomes a breeding ground for bacteria. This is what causes people to become sick with food illnesses. If you have "food poisoning" then you'll know it. The symptoms of a food related illness are: vomiting, fever, diarrhea, aching muscles, headache and stomach cramps. E coli generally passes after a week or two; if you think you have salmonella check your stool for blood. Some varieties of salmonella can cause typhoid fever which can sometimes be fatal. To ensure that you kill all bacteria when cooking food the core temperature of the food must reach 70° C (158° F) for at least 2 minutes. This is a good reason to own a cooking thermometer.
Storage
You should of course store your PHFs in (where else?) your refrigerator. In order to stop the spread of bacteria the optimum temperature that you should keep in your fridge is 4° C (40° F). At this temperature the bacteria cannot survive but even one degree higher and you might as well have left your food on the table. When deciding where to place your PHFs in the fridge there are a few things that you have to take into consideration. Stacking unlike PHFs is a big "no no". You should never put a container of beef directly on top of a container of tuna or a mixed salad. While the bacteria cannot survive in 4° C it doesn't die immediately and if your container isn't airtight it can easily contaminate the other PHF. Keep seafood, dairy and beef on different shelves or in different compartments of your refrigerator. If you don't have enough room then it's probably time to clean out the leftovers. Most refrigerators have a built in crisper drawer or two for keeping vegetables. Here are examples of a properly and improperly stocked refrigerator:
Proper
Improper
That is all for now. Hope this guide helped you in some way or that you at least learned something from it; thanks for reading anyway if you didn't.
Comments
Good stuff to know though.
I didn't know about PHF rules. Thanks for this guide!
True, but the info is good, and spec can derail all he wants, the info is there regardless of anything he posts, I just might derail it myself by saying that after the flogging my girlfriend gave me earlier, I am pretty much desensitized to butthurt anyway.
I do hope some discussion of food safety issues ensues though. A good place to start would be anything anyone feels was omitted from the guide.....
Food poisoning fucking sucks. The only time I got it was when me and a buddy decided to cook some shrimp while stoned. This turned out to be a terrible mistake. That shrimp had gone bad a while ago. and I have never been that sick in my life.
The burning feeling I had in my stomach was like nothing I've ever felt and I ended up spending the day on the toilet with a trashcan to puke in. I would have honestly welcomed death at that point it was that bad. Fuck food poisoning. Thanks for the guide OP.
*off to organize the fridge.*
idk how to cook god damn this is why its so much harder to maintain a healthy diet
There are a lot of foods that are okay at room temperature, anything with a high enough salt content, or a low enough PH will usually be okay. Sushi rice has to be kept around 10c or it loses texture, but the acid from the rice vinegar prevents spoilage.
The real danger is when there is a source of contamination, if there is no initial contamination, food will be fine if left at room temperature for quite a while. However it is difficult to pinpoint all the possible sources for bacteria in a given setting. Lets say you ordered some chow mein, ate half right out of the container, and left it on the counter overnight. The microbes transferred from your mouth, to the fork, to the leftover food in the container could spend the night making sweet love in your chow mein, and as you dig on it for breakfast the next day you are eating all the toxins produced by those bacteria as they bred, and the bacteria as well. You could have an interesting afternoon at work wondering why your guts feel funny and you can't stop pooping.
C/O
I was always under the impression that (at least here in Canada) one of the major causes of food poisoning was improperly handled cantaloupes??
I don't really see any point in deliberately eating contaminated food. Sure, maybe what doesn't kill you will make you stronger -- though I'm not sure of it in this case -- but why, if you aren't going to have to eat contaminated food a lot?
Yes, you can develop an basic immunity to some food pathogens, but pathogens constantly evolve, and just like the flu, even though you were immune to last years model, it might not save you from some troubles if you are exposed to something with a new genotype. I think your doctor was a bit whacked on this one to be honest, you were likely exposed to tons of pathogens regardless of the sanitary nature of your home, every time you touch a doorknob and then eat at sandwich, you ingest all the crap that the last 50 people left on the doorknob.
If you experienced problems after moving out, I think it is more likely these were caused by unsanitary conditions in your environment, not everything that makes you sick is caused by food. You were probably exposed to a lot of pathogens from people not washing their hands, etc, I am not refuting your basic point, an overly sanitary upbringing might have left you less prepared for some stuff, but as long as you rode the bus and went to public washrooms when you were a kid you should have developed some basic immune responses.
Food poisoning from some sources does not even require an infection, it is the toxins produced by the bacteria in the improperly stored food that make you sick, not the original organism.
In fact, most people have a healthy colony of various bacteria in their intestinal tract that prevent most pathogens from breeding, and help digest food, you get these from things like Yogurt and raw vegetables. An average poop consists of about 30% dead intestinal bacteria. Anyone who has done a cycle of antibiotics like penicillin can tell you what happens when these friendly bacteria are not present, it's rather nasty. If you are exposed to too high a level, or too virulent a strain of pathogen, and neither the little friends in your gut or your immune system can deal with it, then you get sick. Stuff like the infamous E-coli outbreaks are caused by both, IE; a whopping dose of E-coli that has some resistance to your bodys defenses, allowing it to breed unchecked.
C/O
"rare hamburger?, not unless you are willing to sign a waiver, boy-o"