What are the three types of temperature abuse?

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Table of Contents Show

What is time-temperature abuse?
Why is continuous temperature monitoring important for food?
Tools and Methods to help you prevent time-temperature abuse
How much money can I save using Therma°?
Time and temperature
Cold holding - 41 F or less
Cooking temperatures
Microwave cooking to 165 F
Hot holding temperatures at 140 F or above
Cool foods as quick as possible
Reheat foods to 165 F for 15 seconds
Tools for temperature control
Train your staff
Provide thermometers and temperature logs

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Temperature control is crucial to safeguarding your inventory, protecting your profits, and preventing foodborne illnesses in your restaurant or food service establishment.

Temperature excursions, or changes in your food storage temperatures, happen all the time in restaurants due to equipment malfunction and user error. And when these temperature changes go unnoticed, the food affected experiences what’s called time-temperature abuse.

Read on to learn what you can do to keep food out of the danger zone, and prevent time-temperature abuse. Learn how new tools and equipment make it easier than ever to detect the need for corrective action before it’s too late.

What is time-temperature abuse?

Along with cross-contamination, time-temperature abuse is one of the most common food safety violations, and primary causes of foodborne illnesses.

Time-temperature abuse happens when food isn’t stored at the correct temperatures.

Servsafe identifies the following safe temperature guidelines for food storage:

Cold foods must be stored at an internal temperature of 41°F or lower.

Hot foods must be stored at 135°F or higher.

Frozen food items must be stored frozen.

Storage should be well ventilated with open shelving and a visible thermometer, accurate to plus or minus 3 degrees Fahrenheit.

According to the Certified Food Safe Professional (CFSP) Credential, there are three ways that time-temperature abuse occurs:

Food is stored or held at temperatures inside the danger zone (41-135° F) for longer than 4 hours. For reference, room temperature is considered to be between 68° and 74° F.

Food handlers not following cooking temperature/time recommendations to ensure hot foods reach the minimum internal temperature during the cooking process.

Food handlers cooling and reheating foods incorrectly.

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Why is continuous temperature monitoring important for food?

All food is at risk of spoilage due to changes of temperature during production, storage, preparation, and serving. Even sealed, shelf stable food, like canned goods, can experience time-temperature abuse if exposed to extreme high or low temperatures. Some types of food are especially vulnerable to spoilage. This class of food is referred to as Time/Temperature Control for Safety (TCS) foods. These high-risk food products include dairy products, meat, and seafood. Click here for a more complete list.

Closely monitoring TCS foods plays a major role in protecting your restaurant’s profits.

85% of restaurant food waste events occur due to poor temperature control, causing an average profit loss of 28-35%.

Frequent monitoring is also important for your customers’ safety.

Foodborne pathogens like Salmonella grow rapidly in the 40°F-140°F temperature range, doubling in number in as little as 20 minutes. This is why it is important that cold-holding equipment keeps foods at temperatures below 40°F, and hot-holding equipment can maintain a temperature above 140°F.

Although food may look and smell normal, it may not always be safe to eat. It’s important to have clear and frequent food temperature logs to make sure the food you’re serving to your customers has been stored at the proper temperature, and won’t make them sick.

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Tools and Methods to help you prevent time-temperature abuse

In 2010, Congress passed the Food Standards Modernization Act (FSMA) requiring all food manufacturing facilities to have “adequate temperature controls”.

Today, manual checks and handwritten logs are the most common temperature controls used to monitor changes in food storage units.

These checks are typically done every 2 hours to look for any signs of temperature excursions in your storage equipment, allowing enough time for corrective action before you hit the 4-hour limit set by ServSafe.

But manual temperature controls can be time-consuming and they’re often overlooked during busy shifts. Because time constraints are so common in the food industry, not only do manual inspections run the risk of misreporting, but they create situations where faulty equipment, like a broken freezer condenser, can be overlooked well into the thawing process. On a good day, manual inspections are inefficient, on a bad day, they are downright dangerous.

Smart thermometers, as part of a remote temperature monitoring system, are a more efficient way to track temperature excursions and avoid time-temperature abuse events.

Therma° is a great option for foodservice providers that automates this monitoring process, allowing your staff to focus on their other tasks while still ensuring you keep food safe for your consumers.

How much money can I save using Therma°?

With this automated system, sensors take consistent temperature measurements in your food storage spaces and save each data point to the cloud.

If your storage temperatures read inside the temperature danger zone, Therma° will alert you and your team through SMS, phone call, push notification, or email so you can respond to the temperature excursion within minutes, before pathogens have a chance to grow.

The potential savings will vary depending on your business, but typical savings for Therma° users add up to $15,000 per location. Check out how this McDonald’s franchisee saved thousands using this system.

Interested in seeing how much money Therma° can save you? Click here to learn more.

A leading cause of foodborne illness is time and temperature abuse of TCS (food requiring time and temperature control for safety) foods. TCS foods are time and temperature abused any time they’re in the temperature danger zone, 41 to 135 degrees F. This occurs when food is:

Not cooked to the recommended minimum internal temperature.
Not held at the proper temperature.
Not cooled or reheated properly.

Temperature danger zone: 41 to 135 degrees F.

The longer food is in the temperature danger zone, the more time pathogens have to grow. The goal is to reduce the amount of time TCS food spends in the temperature danger zone. If food is held in this range for four or more hours, you must throw it out. It’s better to check temps every two hours and take corrective action when needed.

Time and temperature

Do you get confused over all the specific time and temperature requirements? For a quick and reliable reference, print a copy of Minnesota Department of Health fact sheet, Temperature Requirements for Potentially Hazardous Foods. All the following times and temps are included.

Cold holding - 41 F or less

Cold foods must be maintained at 41 F or less.

Cooking temperatures

The following MUST be cooked to listed internal temperatures and times:

145 F or above for 15 seconds

Eggs for immediate service.
Fish (except as otherwise required).
Meat (except as otherwise required).
Commercially raised game animals (except as otherwise required).

155 F or above for 15 seconds, or 150 F or above for one minute, or
145 F or above for three minutes

Chopped or ground meat.
Chopped or ground fish.
Chopped or ground commercially raised game animals.
Pork.
Injected meats.
Eggs cooked for hot holding.

165 F or above for 15 seconds

Poultry.
Stuffed food products.
Stuffing containing fish, meat, poultry or wild game animals.

Microwave cooking to 165 F

Time and temperature control for safety foods cooked in a microwave must be cooked to 165 F. The product must be covered, and rotated or stirred during the cooking process. After cooking, allow two minutes stand time before serving.

Hot holding temperatures at 140 F or above

Hot food must be maintained at 140 F or above.

Cool foods as quick as possible

Foods must be cooled from 135 to 70 degrees F within 2 hours and from 70 to 41 F within an additional 4 hours. The goal is to cool foods as quickly as possible.

Reheat foods to 165 F for 15 seconds

Food that is reheated must reach a minimum internal temperature of at least 165 F for 15 seconds. Reheating must be done rapidly and the minimum temperature must be reached within two hours. Steam tables, warmers, or similar equipment do not heat food quickly enough and must not be used for reheating food.

Tools for temperature control

Train your staff

Remember it’s your responsibility to provide the training and the tools your staff needs to monitor time and temperature. Your staff needs to learn:

What to do.
How to do it.
Why it’s important.
What corrective action to take, if necessary.

Provide thermometers and temperature logs

Along with training, provide your staff with thermometers and temperature logs for successful monitoring.

If you need help with selecting the right thermometers for your business, Iowa State University Extension has developed an excellent resource, Thermometer Use in Retail Foodservice Establishments. It provides details of commonly used temperature-sensing devices and how to use them to ensure food safety and quality.