A buffet restaurant checks its hot line every 4 hours. At the 4-hour check, the tomato soup reads 120°F. The cook suggests reheating it to 165°F. What should the manager decide?
a.Approve the reheat to 165°F, but require that the soup be served within 30 minutes and not put back in the steam well
b.Approve the reheat; holding 165°F for 15 seconds kills every pathogen that grew during the last 4 hours
c.Keep serving the soup, since tomato soup is acidic enough to count as a non-TCS food that needs no temperature control
d.Reject the reheat and discard the soup; under a 4-hour checking schedule, food found below 135°F must be thrown out
Explanation
With 4-hour checks, the soup may have sat in the danger zone for nearly 4 hours, long enough for some bacteria to produce heat-stable toxins that reheating cannot destroy — so a 165°F reheat does not make it safe, whether or not it is served quickly. Tomato soup is a TCS food and needs temperature control. That is why the 4-hour schedule requires discarding food found out of temperature.
Law Reference: FDA Food Code §3-501.16Practice all 500 questions free — no signup required.
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- Which set of practices best supports keeping food at safe temperatures on a hot line during service?
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