Fried Chicken

lol, filletofspam…no, it’s not!

The internal temperature of the chicken itself (not the ‘holding unit’)has to be 140 degrees, which means the temperature of the truck would have had to be closer to 200 degrees to maintain an internal temperature.

I think it was the Summer of 1983 when I worked as a cook at KFC though I could be off a year either way. I worked there for 5 months. I do remember the district manager coming in every now and then with a thermometer that he would jab into random pieces of chicken. The KFC that I worked at took food safety a lot more seriously than the chicken friend steak restaurant that I cooked at previously. When the health department inspected us the only thing we lost points for was a broken floor tile that could trap bacteria. The store manager ran a pretty tight ship. He also worked our tails off; it would have been a miserable job except most of my coworkers were a lot of fun to work with.

ichi, if the chicken was freshly fried or kept in the Crescore above 140F when he picked it up than it should have stayed at a safe temperature if the truck was warmer than that. If the chicken cooled off than the truck would have to be much warmer to get it back up to a safe temperature quickly. I don’t remember what we kept our Crescores at when I worked at KFC but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t as high as 200F.

Sitting at room temperature for 3-4 hours is certainly a no-no in any case. I will admit to eating food that has been out for over 2 hours without problem but if I was a caterer I never would serve it after that.

How to make people hurl. Even if the temp in the truck was ‘accurately’ and how likely is that to have been 150 degrees, hello, most normal thermometers don’t go anywhere near that high, you can’t say all the chicken was exposed to that constant temperature like it would be in an oven.

You are lucky about the initial serving that no one got sick. Any leftovers should be tossed immediately. SMELL has got nothing to do with it in a case like this. Salmonella doesn’t smell.

This is why I don’t eat chicken or potato salad, in particular, at summer events. Much as I love hurling, I’d rather do so from excess alcohol consumption (voluntary) then random food poisoning (involuntary).

I love fried chicken, but not that much.

Yes, but consider that the truck was not always at 150 degrees…when it was put in the truck, it would have been at a temperature tolerable for human survival, and it would have taken some time to go up to 150 degrees…the fall and peak and fall of the temperatures alone are enough to cause bacteria to breed, regardless of the fact that the truck was eventually 150 degrees.

How long ago did you work at KFC? Food sanitation is one of a chef’s most important factors to consider, and we are kept up to date on it frequently…we have to write tests regularly.

If the back of your truck was truly 150F than that is warm enough a holding temperature to keep the fried chicken from spoiling.

Being at room temperature for 3-4 hours can be a problem though. The general rule is that food should not be kept at room temperature over 2 hours. If it is kept above 140F or below 40F it will keep longer but 2 hours should be the limit for food between these temperatures..

The chicken is probably ok but there is a chance that it could give you food poisoning. Personally I wouldn’t risk it.

Oh my…it wasn’t safe to eat from the moment you took it out of the truck.

Just because the interior of the vehicle is 150 degrees, doesn’t mean the temperature of the food is, not to mention leaving it out on a table…and it would have to be held at an internal temperature of 140 degrees.

You served unsafe food…get rid of the remainder and pray nobody falls sick.