Foodborne illness, or food poisoning, is an ever-present threat to South Dakotan’s public health. The Centers for Disease Control estimates each year roughly 1 in 6 Americans gets sick with a foodborne illness. In South Dakota this extrapolates to 136,000 South Dakotans.
Preparing large quantities of food with equipment and facilities intended for a family kitchen certainly has its challenges. It all comes down to time and temperature relationships. Therefore, make sure you know the safe food handling practices and have the right equipment to accomplish the following:
- Cook food to the correct temperature
- Cool food quickly.
- Reheat food to the correct temperature within one hour.
- Hold hot food hot and cold food cold.
Take the guess-work out of cooking and use a meat thermometer. That is the only way to truly know that you have not under or overcooked a food that contains meat, fish or poultry.
SOUTH DAKOTA FOOD SERVICE CODE REQUIRES THE MINIMUM FINAL INTERNAL COOKING TEMPERATURES:
| 145°F | 15 seconds | Shell eggs for individual order; fish, seafood; beef, veal, lamb, mutton, and buffalo steaks |
| *155°F | 15 seconds | Ground/chopped meat and fish, injected meats, eggs in multi-serving batches to be held for hot service. Roasts – pork, beef, lamb, ratites, buffalo |
| 150°F or 145°F | 1 minute or 3 minutes | Roasts – pork, beef, lamb, ratites, buffalo |
| 165°F | 15 seconds | Poultry (whole or ground), leftovers, stuffed foods, or stuff-ing containing fish, meat or poultry. |
Minimum Requirements (your establishment may have higher temperature standards)
*The USDA recommends 160°F. Many establishments use this as a standard to reduce the risk of foodborne illness often associated with ground products.
Some microorganisms, such as Clostridium perfringens and Bacillus cereus are capable of surviving cooking temperatures by forming a spore (a protective state for some bacteria). These two bugs are often associated with foods that are difficult to cool down, reheat adequately, and maintain hot or cold holding temperature. When all the conditions are right, these bugs can proliferate and lead to a foodborne illness outbreak.
Clostridium perfringens is commonly referred to as the cafeteria bug – associated with thick foods that may be prepared in large quantities making it difficult to maintain the right temperatures. Examples are gravies, stews, thick soups, or barbeques. While Bacillus cereus is often associated with rice that is being served on a steam table.
“Spore formers” are kept under control as long as the food is kept out of the temperature danger zone: 40°F to 140°F. There are several temperature and time relationships that will keep a “spore former” from reproducing:
- Cool quickly: 140°F to 70°F within 2 hours, and down to 40°F within an additional 4 hours.
- Hold hot food at 140°F or higher, and cold food 40°F or lower.\
- Reheating slowly – spores that survived cooking can start to grow if reheated very slowly.
SDSU Extension has several publications addressing the safe preparation of food when preparing and serving in large quantities. Two publications that are very popular among organizations that occasionally serve a crowd include:
These publications provide practical information for preparing food for large groups ahead of time and monitoring the critical safe food handling practices to reduce the risk of a food borne illness outbreak.
For more information, contact AnswerLine (1-888-393-6336) or Joan Hegerfeld-Baker, SDSU Extension Food Safety Specialist or Food Safety Field Specialists Sharon Guthmiller, Lavonne Meyer, or Heather Moechnig.