A very boring food safety question...

[florida-again]

I made some pasta with tomato sauce and shrimp (used the ready-cooked kind) earlier today.

Its just been sat in the pan for a few hours now getting cold. Do you think its safe to re-heat it and eat it for dinner? I'm not sure how it works with shrimp

I googled it but no luck

 

[hugsquared]

Personally, I would be okay with it. They've been cooked (twice really) and its really only been a few hours. I do stuff like that all the time and after 38 years have never had to regret it. Heat it up again and go for it. You should be fine.

 

[florida-again]

Personally, I would be okay with it. They've been cooked (twice really) and its really only been a few hours. I do stuff like that all the time and after 38 years have never had to regret it. Heat it up again and go for it. You should be fine.

Thank you...that's my dinner planned then!

 

[nwdisgal]

I made some pasta with tomato sauce and shrimp (used the ready-cooked kind) earlier today.

Its just been sat in the pan for a few hours now getting cold. Do you think its safe to re-heat it and eat it for dinner? I'm not sure how it works with shrimp

I googled it but no luck

Actually, the tomato sauce has a lot of acid in it which actually works to deter bacteria growth. Bacteria thrive in an akaline PH. The rule of thumb I learned is you have six total hours from the beginning of preparation to serving time to use/reuse food. You were okay because the meal sat for only two hours and the acidity in the tomato sauce. The food danger zone is when food is being held between 40 degrees to 140 degrees. This is where bacteria thrive. You want to minimize the time your food is in that temperature zone. When you are reheating leftover food or food that has been sitting, heat it to at least 165 degrees.

One of the biggest and unsuspected culprits for food poisoning is rice. It is alkaline and people will let it sit for a long time because they think, oh it's just rice (a starch) and won't hurt anyone. Anyway, I just saw this post, and I'm sure your meal is long over , but maybe this info. will be helpful to people as they are preparing and reheating their holiday dishes. Happy cooking.

 

[Free4Life11]

I learned that food should be in the danger zone for no more than 4 hours.

 

[kristen821]

One of the biggest and unsuspected culprits for food poisoning is rice. It is alkaline and people will let it sit for a long time because they think, oh it's just rice (a starch) and won't hurt anyone.

I would have never known that about rice. Thanks!

 

[nwdisgal]

I learned that food should be in the danger zone for no more than 4 hours.

You are right. That is what I learned and then one of my sanitation instructors later told me it was actually six hours? I say less is better.

Anyway, here's what I found in my food service text:

"The FDA 1999 Food Code recommends that potentially hazardous cooked foods be cooled from 140 to 70 degrees within 2 hours and from 70 to 41 degrees or below wthin 4 hours."

Okay, now how to decipher that? Is that four hours cumulative or another four hours added to the two?

 

[anewvance]

I think I would be ok, as long as no more then 6 hours, seems like from your post it has been less..

 

[nwdisgal]

I would have never known that about rice. Thanks!

I won't go near fried rice because I've seen too many chefs use it to clean out their walk in.

 

[mum4jenn]

Oh..and add POTATOES to the list of dangerous foods(like the rice)