How can you slow cook food for several hours and not get food poisoning from it?

Question

I thought that heating uncooked food at a temperature above 135 degrees F for a relatively short amount of time and then keeping it cold right after was the only way to prevent food from making you sick, but I don’t understand how people can cook “low and slow” stews or crockpot food that’s been cooking for like 8+ hours and eat them without any problem.

In: 0

Answer 1

When food enters the kill zone/cooking zone, the bacteria die. Food can sit at whatever temperature it wants for however long it wants (from a bacteria standpoint, not a material degradation standpoint) as long as you then heat it enough to kill the bacteria after, which happens at the end of low and slow.