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Cooking & Baking

In reply to the discussion: The crockpot was on Warm [View all]

femmedem

(8,490 posts)
1. I don't know much about crockpots but that sounds dangerous to me.
Mon May 13, 2024, 04:28 AM
May 2024

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but: https://www.eatthis.com/news-slow-cooker-danger-health-experts/

"If you're cooking poultry, you want the cooker to be set to 165 degrees. For ground meats, 160 degrees, and cooking steaks and roasts, 145 degrees. Ham, meanwhile, can be cooked at an even lower temperature: 140 degrees. But, the lower you go with your temperature, the more you're flirting with the biggest risk of using a slow cooker. According to FSIS, there is a temperature "danger zone" in which you could be exposing yourself to harmful pathogens: 40 degrees to 140 degrees.

"Pathogens are bacteria or viruses that cause illness," explains Eileen Haraminac, a Food Safety Educator at Michigan State University. "Although they usually exist in harmless quantities, they can multiply to dangerous levels if food is stored or cook at inadequate temperatures. A safe slow cooker cooks slowly for unattended cooking, yet fast enough to keep food out of the bacterial danger zone in which pathogens grow quickly."

So, if you're cooking too slowly at too low of a temperature, you could be unwittingly exposing yourself to illness. Undercooked pork and beef, for instance, may contain bacteria that include salmonella, E. coli, listeria, and clostridium perfringens—all of which may result in food poisoning..."

The same article lists five ways to avoid food poisoning when cooking with a crockpot, and #4 is Don't cook on warm.

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