Learn About Storing Baked Goods and Baking Ingredients

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The proper storage of ingredients and baked goods are essential to food safety.
If you have any baking questions, please post them in our Forum, where they will be answered shortly.

FOOD SAFETY
Stored food slowly deteriorates, making it vulnerable to microbial contamination. The two main risk factors to causing foodborne illnesses are:

Temperature, and,
Time or the amount of time the food stays within a certain temperature.

Foods should be stored under three conditions:

Refrigerator: 40 degrees F (4 degrees C) or below
Freezer: below 0 degrees F ( - 18 degrees C)
Room Temperature (Dry storage): 60 to 70 degrees F (15 to 21 degrees C) Canned goods
Room Temperature (Dry storage): 50 to 70 degrees F (10 to 21 degrees C) Root vegetables (potatoes, onions), whole citrus, eggplant

General rules: MORE

Keep everything clean -- hands, utensils, counters, cutting boards and sinks.
Always wash hands thoroughly in hot soapy water before preparing foods and after handling raw meat, poultry or seafood.
Don't let raw juices from meat, poultry or seafood touch ready-to-eat foods either in the refrigerator or during preparation

**The USDA suggests storing cold foods at 40 degrees F or below and hot foods at 140 degrees F or above**
Between 40 degrees and 140 degrees F, is considered the temperature danger zone, especially between 60 to 140 degrees F, where there is a rapid growth of bacteria and the production of toxins.
TEMPERATURE Degrees F		TYPE
240 - 250	Canning	Low-acid foods (vegetables, meat, poultry in pressure canner)
212 - 240	Canning	High-acid foods (fruits, tomatoes, pickles in water-bath container)
165 - 212	Cooking	Cooking temperatures destroy most bacteria, but minimum internal temperatures (for 15 seconds) must be met in order to comply. Each food product has its own internal temperature requirement according to the FDA, USDA and individual state (health department). Water boils at 212 degrees F. Generally, bacteria die when exposed to at least 10 minutes of boiling. However, not all foods can be boiled.
140 - 165	Store hot foods at 140 degrees F or above	Warm temperature prevents growth, but some survival of bacteria
40 - 140	Room temperature and above	DANGER ZONE Rapid growth of bacteria and production of toxins (60 - 140 degrees F); Some growth of bacteria (40 to 60 degrees F) *NOTE: Any PERISHABLE food exposed for more than TWO hours of time, actual or cumulative, should be DISCARDED.** *Cumulative time includes all the time from the store to your fridge or freezer, the time the food is in the kitchen being prepared, the time the food is being plated, served or on display, etc.
32 - 40	Refrigerator (40 degrees F or below) Store cold foods at 40 degrees F or below	Slows growth of some bacteria Water freezes at 32 degrees F
0	Freezer	Stops growth, but bacteria survive