Power Outage Response

A power outage is the classic imminent health hazard question, and the answer depends on how long the food stayed out of the safe range.

Key points:

Keep the doors closed. A full refrigerator holds temperature about 4 hours, a full freezer much longer.
Cold food that stayed at 41 F or below can be kept. Above 41 F for over 4 hours, discard.
Hot food at 135 F or above can move to hot holding. Below that for 4 hours, discard.
When in doubt, throw it out, and record the decision.

Every one of these points maps back to a specific Food Code provision, which is why the exam can test it in more than one domain.

Free practice bank: FoodSafe Prep.