Welcome to USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service Food Safety at home
podcast series. These podcasts were designed with you in mind - the consumer - who
purchases and prepares meat, poultry and processed meat, egg products
for your family and friends.
Each episode will bring you a different food safety topic ranging from safe storage, handling,
and preparation of meat, poultry and processed egg products to the importance of keeping
foods safe during a power outage.
So sit back, turn up the volume and listen in.
Welcome to “Food Safety at Home.” This is Kathy Bernard with the Food Safety and Inspection
Service. I’m your host for this segment. With me today is Larae Booker from Congressional
and Public Affairs. Larae will provide us with some practical food safety guidelines for
safe cooking with slow cookers.
Hi, Larae. Welcome to Food Safety at Home.
Thank you, Kathy. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Many people associate the use of slow cookers with cold winter days, but slow cookers
are good any time of the year. A slow cooker allows you to plan ahead so that you can
save time later. It also takes a lot less electricity to use a slow cooker than an oven.
Larae, what is a slow cooker?
A slow cooker is a countertop appliance. It cooks food slowly with low, steady, moist
heat over a period of 8 to 12 hours. Slow cookers can range in size from 1 to 6 quarts.
Is it safe?
Yes. The low temperature, direct heat from the pot, lengthy cooking, and steam or moist
heat combine to destroy bacteria. That makes the slow cooker a safe process for cooking
Could you tell us the temperature range of a slow cooker?
It’s between 170 °F and 280 °F.
I know I need to start off with a clean cooker, clean utensils and a clean work area.
And of course, wash my hands before and during preparation. What else should I do?
You should keep perishable foods refrigerated until preparation time. If you cut up meat
and vegetables in advance, store them separately in the refrigerator. The slow cooker
may take several hours to reach a safe, bacteria-killing temperature, so constant refrigeration
assures that bacteria – which multiply rapidly at room temperature – won't get a head
start during the first few hours of cooking.
Do I need to thaw and cut up the ingredients before cooking?
Yes. Always defrost meat or poultry in the refrigerator before putting it into a slow
cooker. So choose recipes with high moisture content such as chili, soup, stew or spaghetti
sauce. If you’re using a commercially frozen slow-cooker meal, prepare it according to
the manufacturer’s instructions.
What amount of food can I put in the slow cooker?
Fill the slow cooker no less than half full and no more than two-thirds full. If you’re
cooking vegetables, put them in first, at the bottom and around sides of the utensil.
Then add the meat and cover the food with a liquid such as broth, water, or barbecue sauce.
Keep the lid in place and remove it only to stir the food or check for doneness.
What do I need to know about the temperature settings?
Well, most cookers have two or more settings. Foods take different times to cook depending
upon the setting used. Foods will cook faster on higher settings than on a lower one.
However, for all-day cooking or for less-tender cuts, you may want to use the low setting.
If possible, turn the cooker to the highest setting for the first hour of cooking time
and then to low or to the setting called for in your recipe. However, it’s safe to cook
foods on low the entire time – if you're leaving for work, for example, and preparation
time is limited.
While the food’s cooking and once it’s done, food will stay safe as long as the cooker
What happens if the power goes out while the food is cooking?
It depends. If you’re not at home during the entire process and the power goes out, throw
away the food even if it looks done. If you are at home, finish cooking the ingredients
immediately by some other means – on a gas stove, or on the outdoor grill or at a house
where the power is on.
If the power outage occurs while you’re at home and if the food was completely cooked
to a safe minimum internal temperature before the power went out, the food should be safe
up to two hours in the cooker with the power off.
Can I reheat leftovers in the slow cooker?
USDA does not recommend reheating leftovers in a slow cooker. Reheat the leftovers on
a stove, in a microwave, or in a conventional oven until it reaches an internal temperature
of at least 165 °F. Always use a food thermometer to verify the internal temperature of
the food. Afterwards, it’s fine to put the hot food in a preheated slow cooker to keep
the food hot for serving. That holding temperature should be at least 140 °F and measure
that with a food thermometer.
How can we learn more about safe cooking with slow cookers?
Well, consumers can visit the FSIS Web site at www.fsis.usda.gov.
Again, that's www.fsis.usda.gov. Consumers can also get answers to food safety questions
online from our virtual representative “ask Karen” at
AskKaren.gov, or call our toll-free USDA Meat &
Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline. That’s 1-888-674-6854.
That’s it for this week. We’ve been talking to Larae Booker from Congressional and Public
Thank you so much, Larae, for your helpful information on safe cooking with slow cookers.
I’m Kathy Bernard and I’d like to thank you for joining us for this episode of “Food Safety
at Home.” And remember, “Be Food Safe.”
Well, that’s all for this time. Thanks for joining us today for another episode of
food safety at home!
For answers to your food safety questions call USDA's toll-free meat and poultry hotline
at 1-888-mphotline. That’s 1-888-674-6854.
You can also get answers to food safety questions online from our virtual representative
"ask karen" at www.askkaren.gov .
Let us know what you think of this podcast by sending your comments to
Thanks for tuning in.