How to cook foods for safety in Slow Cookers?

Harmful bacteria grows when the food temperature is between 40º F and 140º F.  This is called 'Danger zone'. If the foods are left in danger zone for over 3 to 4 hours, reheating and cooking may not destroy all the toxins. The slow cookers cook foods between 170°F and 280° F. This can jeopardize food safety . Therefore, some precautions need to be followed.

1. Test your slow cooker to see if it heat properly.

2. Always defrost meat and poultry in the refrigerator before putting it into the slow cooker. Putting frozen foods in slow cooker may keep foods in the danger zone too long.

3. For food safety, make it a habit to heat foods on the stovetop till hot (160°F) and then transfer to pre-heated cooker for cooking.

4. Do not use slow cooker to reheat food. If you must, reheat the food in microwave oven or on stove top to about 160°F and then transfer it to a pre-heated slow cooker.

5. If you were not home and there was power outage, the foods may have become toxic specially if the temperature had been in the danger zone for three to four hours. Check the temperature, if the food temperature has dropped below 160ºF, throw away the food.

Testing the slow cooker for food safety

This is a two step method.

Step 1: Fill the slow cooker half-full with water at room temperature. Cover with lid and turn cooker on to 'Low'. Wait two hours. Remove the lid and check temperature. The temperature should be above 165ºF. If the temperature is below 160ºF, the slow cooker is not cooking fast enough.

Step 2: Cover the slow cooker with lid. Continue cooking at Low for another six hours. Remove the lid and check temperature, it should be 185ºF. If the temperature is below 185ºF, the slow cooker can cause food safety problems. If the temperature is above 185ºF, the food may be over cooked with standard recipes.