4-40-140: food safety

I remember hearing, some time ago, the food safety guideline of 4-40-140. It
was a "picnic food" kind of thing. Foods should be kept out of the sun and
not be out for more than four hours unless they are kept at or below 40
degrees or at/above 140 degrees F.

4-40-140, its easy to remember.

Joel Crain is who told me this, by the way, an old friend of mine who passed
away several years ago. Thought I'd pass it on.

Mike

On Dec 28, 1:50*am, "em" wrote:
I remember hearing, some time ago, the food safety guideline of 4-40-140. It
was a "picnic food" kind of thing. Foods should be kept out of the sun and
not be out for more than four hours unless they are kept at or below 40
degrees or at/above 140 degrees F.

4-40-140, its easy to remember.

Joel Crain is who told me this, by the way, an old friend of mine who passed
away several years ago. Thought I'd pass it on.

Mike


I agree with the 40-140 part, but not too sure about the 4 hours. I
sure wouldn't recommend leaving some prepared food out at say 90F for
4 hours and then eating it. It's probably OK if you left many foods
out at 50 deg for that long and you can probably get away with a lot
more, but I wouldn't recommend it as an accepted practice. And of
course you can get away with more if it's a food that's raw and is
going to be thoroughly cooked after it been left out.

wrote in message
...
On Dec 28, 1:50 am, "em" wrote:
I remember hearing, some time ago, the food safety guideline of 4-40-140.
It
was a "picnic food" kind of thing. Foods should be kept out of the sun and
not be out for more than four hours unless they are kept at or below 40
degrees or at/above 140 degrees F.

4-40-140, its easy to remember.

Joel Crain is who told me this, by the way, an old friend of mine who
passed
away several years ago. Thought I'd pass it on.

Mike


I agree with the 40-140 part, but not too sure about the 4 hours. I
sure wouldn't recommend leaving some prepared food out at say 90F for
4 hours and then eating it. It's probably OK if you left many foods
out at 50 deg for that long and you can probably get away with a lot
more, but I wouldn't recommend it as an accepted practice. And of
course you can get away with more if it's a food that's raw and is
going to be thoroughly cooked after it been left out.


At the time (and still), I felt this came from a pretty good source. I was a
quality/safety engineer working on chemical toys with a major toy company at
the time. Joel was my boss and was up-to-date with FDA regs and so forth. He
said the tip came from "this newsletter from the FDA", which he was holding
in his hand.

In any event, I did a little searching. Google tells me that 4-40-140
= -176. I don't care to fight this one to the death. I'll keep an eye out
for something authoritative and will post if I find some such thing.

Mike

On Dec 28, 1:04 pm, "em" wrote:
wrote in message

...
On Dec 28, 1:50 am, "em" wrote:

I remember hearing, some time ago, the food safety guideline of 4-40-140..
It
was a "picnic food" kind of thing. Foods should be kept out of the sun and
not be out for more than four hours unless they are kept at or below 40
degrees or at/above 140 degrees F.

4-40-140, its easy to remember.

Joel Crain is who told me this, by the way, an old friend of mine who
passed
away several years ago. Thought I'd pass it on.

Mike

I agree with the 40-140 part, but not too sure about the 4 hours. I
sure wouldn't recommend leaving some prepared food out at say 90F for
4 hours and then eating it. It's probably OK if you left many foods
out at 50 deg for that long and you can probably get away with a lot
more, but I wouldn't recommend it as an accepted practice. And of
course you can get away with more if it's a food that's raw and is
going to be thoroughly cooked after it been left out.


At the time (and still), I felt this came from a pretty good source. I was a
quality/safety engineer working on chemical toys with a major toy company at
the time. Joel was my boss and was up-to-date with FDA regs and so forth. He
said the tip came from "this newsletter from the FDA", which he was holding
in his hand.

In any event, I did a little searching. Google tells me that 4-40-140
= -176. I don't care to fight this one to the death. I'll keep an eye out
for something authoritative and will post if I find some such thing.

Mike


http://www.fsis.usda.gov/help/FAQs_H...on/index.asp#7

"If a food has been left in the "Danger Zone" - between 40 and 140 °F
- for more than 2 hours, discard it, even though it may look and smell
good."

wrote in message
...
On Dec 28, 1:04 pm, "em" wrote:
wrote in message

...
On Dec 28, 1:50 am, "em" wrote:

I remember hearing, some time ago, the food safety guideline of
4-40-140.
It
was a "picnic food" kind of thing. Foods should be kept out of the sun
and
not be out for more than four hours unless they are kept at or below 40
degrees or at/above 140 degrees F.

4-40-140, its easy to remember.

Joel Crain is who told me this, by the way, an old friend of mine who
passed
away several years ago. Thought I'd pass it on.

Mike

I agree with the 40-140 part, but not too sure about the 4 hours. I
sure wouldn't recommend leaving some prepared food out at say 90F for
4 hours and then eating it. It's probably OK if you left many foods
out at 50 deg for that long and you can probably get away with a lot
more, but I wouldn't recommend it as an accepted practice. And of
course you can get away with more if it's a food that's raw and is
going to be thoroughly cooked after it been left out.


At the time (and still), I felt this came from a pretty good source. I was
a
quality/safety engineer working on chemical toys with a major toy company
at
the time. Joel was my boss and was up-to-date with FDA regs and so forth.
He
said the tip came from "this newsletter from the FDA", which he was
holding
in his hand.

In any event, I did a little searching. Google tells me that 4-40-140
= -176. I don't care to fight this one to the death. I'll keep an eye out
for something authoritative and will post if I find some such thing.

Mike


http://www.fsis.usda.gov/help/FAQs_H...on/index.asp#7

"If a food has been left in the "Danger Zone" - between 40 and 140 °F
- for more than 2 hours, discard it, even though it may look and smell
good."



OK, then... 2-40-140 it is!