Safety when warming up stuff

[Angus]

Charlotte decided to warm up some pasties for lunch - put them in the oven at about 90C.

Now am I right in thinking that the oven should be set at a higher temp because it's unlikely to kill any bacteria (and more likely to create more bacteria).

I know that bacteria are killed off at 76C (correct me if I'm wrong) - but an old oven at 90C warming some pasties for 10 minutes isn't going to work is it?

PLEASE HELP US SETTLE THE DOMESTIC

[0iD]

As long as they're piping hot when they come out, however i'd say the hotter the better.
I normally set mine to 160-180 for extra crispyness.

[Nick]

Ideally, you want to rasie the temperature of a cooked product to 67 degrees or above and hold it there for 5 minutes. Of course, if we all did this, there'd be no such thing as a rare steak!

With products that can be eaten cold, such as pasties, but can also be eaten hot, it not so much how hot you get them (as they're fine to eat without heating), its more like how LONG they are held at a temp where bacteria can reproduce quickly.

So, if those pasties came out of the fridge and went straight into the oven, you can eat them at whatever temp you like, as long as it's straight away. Say you warmed them up to 100 deg inside, then let them cool to 30 degrees and left them on the side for two hours, well, that'd be asking for trouble.

With bacteria, yes, the killing of them by using heat is important, but so is the length of time you give them to breed. Bacteria metabolism slows right down below 5 deg C and pretty much stops at -18C. Temps over 67 deg kill most bacteria so the 'danger zone', as its known is between 5 and 67 degrees. Leave you food at that temp for a couple of hours and you'll be taking a chance.

[Angus]

Cheers Deck;

I Guess I was kinda wrong then.

Apologies to Charlotte