Is heating food slowly unsafe?!
Is heating food slowly unsafe?
My dad, I believe, is totally deliberatly ignorant to safe food handling practices.
He leaves meat to thaw out on the sink. He has had to be scolded time and time again by my mum to get the message. Now it thaws only in the off oven (a slight improvement)
What I'm arguing with him about this time is "reheating food slowly" in the oven. I say, because the food sits for a long time in the "danger zone" it's unsafe to heat food this way. Especially because we're talking about reheating several day-old leftovers. I say, it should go from fridge direct to the microwave to be reheated until very hot, or straight into a hot oven.
Who is more right? And if you've got a safe food handling certification or are any kind of expert, please mention that in your response.
Answers:
Well, my employment involves food, and so I know a good bit, I believe I may have been certified at one point, but it's been a couple years, so, I don't even remember, lol, but at any rate, I do still know some stuff :P Any food that spends a while in the danger zone, which is essentially room temp, is unsafe. Thawing must be done in an area that is still below room temp, so it should be place in the fridge and left to thaw over night. Reheating food over a long period of time, if spent in the "danger zone" temp, would therefore also be unsafe. Also, it isn't fully safe to heat, cool, and then reheat the same food multiple times, because then its having a warm up and cool done time, which is in the danger temp, I believe, and that means bacteria growth (yuck!)- so when you reheat left overs, just be sure to only reheat the portion that you need, so that the rest has better odds for safe consumption.
Also, remember that bacteria still grows even when below danger temp, it just grows more slowly.
So, to directly answer the question, with explanation: reheating food slowly is not a good idea. It would probably spend a lot of time in the danger zone, which would build up bacteria. Even once it reached a high enough temp to be safe, it would have to be kept at that temp for a while in order to kill the bacteria, and because it's already spent some time cooking as it slowly warmed up, the amount of time it would have to spend at the safe high temp would probably burn the food, and ruin it.
well actually neither is safe...
its bad because when you reheat using the microwave oven...you kill the healthy cells inside the food...and yah because the food does sit in a long time so it is bad...maybe you could just reheat food in a pot or something...at least its safer.
We sometimes put meat on the counter to thaw. It's not safe to cook frozen raw meat. I don't think there is any wrong way though to reheat food. Alot of people will reheat casseroles like lasagna in an oven. Your oven should be preheated though. If it's something small though, I will use a microwave. Either way, as long as the food is thoroughly heated, you won't have a problem. Also, you shouldn't store food in your fridge for longer than a week. No matter how you heat it, you might feel sick in your stomach.
I'm not an expert but I have been cooking and reheating food for a very long time and me and everyone I cook for is still alive and well. :)