The FDA supports that food is cooled from 135°F to 41°F (57°C to 5°C) in six hours or less. This time end helps prevent dangerous bacteria fullness. But the guidelines don’t end there. The FDA Food Code has one supplementary rule: Food must be cooled off from 135°F to 70°F (57°C to 21°C) in two hours or less. In this reach, bacteria can double in as short as 20 minutes. The sooner food passes finished this temperature range, the real. Food workers have the peace of the six hours to take food finished the remaining temperature risk zone, from 70°F down to 41°F (21°C to 5°C).
This entire cooling off process is usually called the two-stage cooling method. Some food workers see it like this:
Stage 1: Cool food from 135°F to 70°F (57°C to 21°C) in two hours or less. Stage 2: Cool food from 70°F to 41°F (21°C to 5°C) in four hours or less.Answer:
The total amount of time that the FDA recommends the entire cooling process of food take, divided into two separate stages of cooling, is 6 hours.
Of these six hours, the process is further divided into two critical stages, one of which does not have options as to how to divide the time, and the other that is more flexible.
Thus, the first 2 hours are known as stage 1 of the cooling process of food, and the second stage takes about 4 hours. Stage 1 is absolutely unmovable and its objective is to bring the heat in food from 135°F to 70°F in 2 hours, or less. The FDA explains that this stage is known for being the danger zone, as bacteria tend to thrive best at this range of temperatures. Stage 2 has the more number of hours, with 4 hours left, to finish the cooling process. In this stage, heat must be brought from 70°F to 41°F.
The purpose of this is to bring down the temperature of food safely, but as fast as possible, to prevent dangerous pathogenic bacteria from growing in hot food and putting people in danger.
