Keep your food in the SAFE temperature zone!

5°C to 60°C is the famous temperature danger zone that everyone should remember.

• Bacteria grows and multiplies within that zone and will cause you to have Food Poisoning.
• So please remember, keep your cold foods below 5°C and all your hot food above 60°C.
• If you’re having a party, I would recommend keeping your food in a warmer at all time.

2 Hour / 4 Hour rule

Although 5°C to 60°C is a dangerous temperature zone, but there is a rule to go by for food that you have no choice but to leave it out and eat later. (Take-aways or like a sandwich that you got but just isn’t hungry to eat yet.)

• Under 2 Hour: You’re able to consume your food or refrigerate it again. However the next time you take it out of the fridge to eat, you only have a remainder of 2 hour to finish the food (total 4 hour in room temperature).
• 2 to 4 hour: You’re able to consume your food but not allowed to refrigerate it again.
• Above 4 hour: I’m sorry but you’ll have to throw your food away. It isn’t safe anymore and if eaten, you may result in food poisoning.

What temperature should your Fridge and Freezer be at?

Your FRIDGE should always be between 0°C to 5°C

• The optimal temperature would be 3°C for home fridges.
• 0°C might be too cold for some of your fridges, in that case water molecules in your produce will expand and result in a change of taste and texture in your food.
• Always beware of staying too close to 5°C as it would be near the temperature danger zone inviting bacteria to start breeding.

Your FREEZER should always be below –15°C

• The optimal temperature would be -15°C to -18°C.
• Do NOT overfill your freezer. It will obstruct the airflow, overworking your fridge to maintain the temperature to cool your produce.

Containers

Choose glass, food grade metal or non-toxic plastic containers when storing your produce.

• Cover with lids, Plastic film or Aluminium foil to prevent contamination from one another.
• Always transfer contents from open cans into a container when there’s balance to be kept.
• Some food are required to be stored in Air-Tight containers while others need to breathe.

A more detailed post will be shared on this website talking about the kind of food to store in the fridge and others to store at room temperature.

Thawing

Defrost in fridge (Best method)

• Place your frozen food at the bottom shelf of your fridge to prevent any liquid from leaking onto other cooked food.
• Make sure that it is fully defrosted so that your food will be cooked through the centre.

Bowl of ice cold water (Urgent way)

• Place your frozen food into an air tight bag and submerge in a bowl of cold water.
• You can leave the bowl on the kitchen bench but change a new set of cold water every 20 minute.

Avoid refreezing thawed food

• Bacteria starts to grow once a food is thawed especially when it is in the temperature danger zone.
• When you refreeze and thaw again in the future, you’re causing the food to be even more expose to multiple bacteria which usually result in food poisoning.