vide. Think of the possibilities. Hotel rooms. Backyards.
Boats. Movie theaters.
ON FOOD SAFETY
Anyone who has taken a ServSafe food-handling course has
heard of the “danger zone”: the temperature range between
40° and 140°F where bacteria supposedly multiply at
accelerated rates. According to ServSafe directives, no food
can stay in that zone for longer than 4 hours total.
Of course, this is strictly absurd. Imagine throwing out a
ripe Camembert just as it is finally approaching its optimal
serving temperature because it’s been on the cheese board
for a couple of hours. Or think of throwing out jamóns
Iberico or prosciutto or even a good old country ham just 4
hours into its months-long curing process, all of which takes
place in this so-called danger zone. Small fortunes’ worth of
dry-aged beef would have to be chucked in the bin to
comply with these draconian regulations.
ServSafe rules, along with the rules set by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, are intended to absolutely
eliminate the possibility of food-borne illness—they are
designed to have a large margin for error, as well as to be
simple to understand at the expense of accuracy. In reality,
any number of factors, including salt level, sugar level, and
fat level, as well as water content, can affect how rapidly
food will become unfit to consume. Not only that, but
temperature and time have a much more nuanced effect on
food safety than we are led to believe.
When we talk about fresh food—particularly meat—