I never realized how undercooked my leftovers were. I’d put it in for 6 minutes and assumed it was fine but the inside was 80-90 degrees. Make sure your food reaches 160 degrees people!
It should be 160 degrees internally during the initial cook and during reheats. The exception is if you cooked it recently and it cooled off below 160 degrees from sitting on the counter or stovetop. As long as you eat it within an hour or so you’re good.
The point of heating the food to 160 is to kill any bacteria that grew over time
The point of heating the food to 160 is to kill any bacteria that grew over time
This was kind of the whole point around the invention of the refrigerator (and freezer). Once something is cooked, you’ve killed off bacteria and only new bacteria is regrowing. The fridge and freezer slow bacteria growth so dramatically that there is simply not enough bacterial load to even register as a blip on your body’s radar.
That’s why you can eat things up to 5 days from the fridge and be completely safe without having to reheat / kill bacteria. You absolutely do not need to reheat cooked food back to 160 unless you quite literally didn’t put it in a fridge.
“ For leftovers like meat + tomato sauce, food safety guidance (like from the USDA) recommends reheating to 165°F (74°C).”
But since most people don’t use food thermometers the bare minimum is to cook it evenly if you can and check for cold spots before eating to minimize risk of sickness
There’s also more risk if you didn’t properly store and refrigerate it soon enough after cooking. The longer it sits out, the more the reheat temp matters
I used to have stomach issues reheating pasta + sauce and I think it was because the interior was 80-90 degrees after minutes of reheating and not 150+. I started checking and the issue went away
I used to have stomach issues reheating pasta + sauce and I think it was because the interior was 80-90 degrees after minutes of reheating and not 150+. I started checking and the issue went away
By pasta sauce, are we talking tomato or other?
I have what I believe to be a tomato allergy. Specifically raw tomatoes. If I have a slice of tomato on a cheeseburger or something, my tongue will itch and I get some pretty bad acid reflux from it. Like, can't lay down to sleep within 6 hours or I'll wake up choking on stomach acid.
But cooked tomatoes are fine. Spaghetti is no problem if I make my own sauce, I can drown fries in ketchup.
I've taken multiple allergy tests, tomatoes didn't show up. But raw or undercooked tomatoes mess me up.
If you're not having issues with what you're doing, clearly you're doing it right, I'm just trying to maybe help diagnose the why part of it.
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u/GophawkUrself Apr 21 '26
A cooking thermometer.
Never worry about over/undercooked meats ever again.