Be Food Safe: How to Handle Your Leftover Food (Part 1)
It is quite normal to find a lot of food stuck in the ref especially if you’ve just had a big serving last night and weren’t able to finish everything. Almost each and every American household stocks containers of leftovers in the fridge, but not all of them are consumed and are left to rot in the cold.
However, it’s not always cool to keep food in the fridge. According to the Partnership for Food Safety Education, “temperature and time cause bacteria to grow which is why it is so important the refrigerator be cold enough and not keep leftovers too long.”
“There is a limit to how long food can be safely kept.”
That having said, it is thus important to learn about the different ways on how to keep and consume leftovers without putting your life at risk:
- Refrigerate cooked leftover food immediately after it cools down or within two hours. Also, make sure that the refrigerator temperature is below 40° F; bacteria thrive and grow rapidly in temperatures between 40° F and 140° F, and that’s something you should try to prevent from happening.
- Store your leftover food into small parts and store them in shallow containers. This way they get to cool down faster even when hot.
- Make sure to handle food with clean hands washed with warm water and soap. Bacteria and other agents that may cause spoilage can be carried by the hands and begin the rotting process while the food is being handled.
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