- The internal temperature of your fridge should be 39 degrees or lower in order to keep food stored at the maximum recommended temp of 41.
- When holding hot food for a period of time (like in a serving situation), try to keep temps at 135 degrees or higher. Food that stays in the temperature danger zone (42-134) for four hours or more can become unsafe. This is true for hot or cold food, so beware the picnic leftovers!
- When storing food in your fridge, it’s safest to store ready-to-eat food on top, then seafood, then whole cuts of beef, then ground meat, then poultry and eggs. This reduces food safety risk due to dripping.
Minimum acceptable internal cooking temps:
- Poultry 165 degrees
- Ground meat or seafood 155 degrees
- Steaks or chops of pork, beef, veal and lamb 145 degrees
- Seafood 145 degrees
- Roasts of pork, beef, veal, lamb 145 for 4 minutes
- Fruit, veggies, rice, pasta, beans that will be hot-held 135 degrees