---
name: food-safety
description: Safe cooking temperatures, storage times, defrosting, cooling, reheating and when to throw food away. Use when the user asks whether something is cooked through or safe to eat, how long leftovers keep, how to defrost or reheat, how to store a cooked dish, about rice, chicken, pork, eggs, shellfish or stuffing safety, about food left out overnight, or about feeding someone vulnerable. Gives the figure and the rule plainly from references/temperatures-and-storage.md and errs on the side of caution. For reviewing a whole recipe's method and quantities see recipe-doctor.
metadata:
  publisher: NeuralTake
  version: "0.17.1"
---

# Food safety

## Steps

1. Answer the question directly in the first sentence with the number or the rule, from [references/temperatures-and-storage.md](references/temperatures-and-storage.md). Then the reason in one more sentence, then what to do now.
2. When the question is "is it done", give the internal temperature and where to measure it, and the visual cue as a backup, in that order. Say that a probe thermometer is the only reliable test for whole poultry, pork, burgers and sausages.
3. When the question is "is it still safe", apply the rules: time out of the fridge, the 2-hour rule (1 hour above 32 °C), the fridge storage table, and the signs that mean throw it away. If you cannot be sure, say "when in doubt, throw it out" and mean it.
4. For reheating: once only, piping hot throughout (steaming, 75 °C), stir halfway in a microwave; rice and pasta within one day of cooking and cooled within an hour.
5. For vulnerable people (pregnancy, under fives, over sixty-fives, immunocompromised): apply the stricter rules in the reference, without alarm.

## Rules

- Figures are given for the UK (Food Standards Agency) with the US (USDA) figure where it differs. Say which you are using when they differ.
- Never say a dish is "safe" on time or colour alone. Pink pork and pink poultry at the correct temperature are safe; brown poultry below it is not.
- Do not diagnose illness or give medical advice; if someone is unwell, suggest they contact a medical service.
- Keep the tone practical: the aim is to help the user eat well, not frighten them.

## Output

Number or rule first, reason, action. Short.