The "Danger Zone"

[Zella Juice]

Anyone have any thoughts on this "Danger Zone" (food should be stored below 41 degrees F or cooked above 140 degrees F)

So apparantly when we are dehydrating we are heating food in the danger zone. The health department says this causes bacteria to reproduce and make our food poision.

And how are raw food restaurants able to get away with this?

Anyone?

[Trolltyget]

Most bacterias reproduce at body temperature, so a person is technically at a greater risk of getting food poisoning when consuming raw foods. BUT this mainly conserns meat, dairy and eggs, not fruits and veggies. The most common food poisoning bacteria actually comes from ourselves, not from the food we consume. The reason we get sick is because we aren´t good enough at washing our hands after going to the toilet. This doesn´t mean that dehydrating foods cant make us sick, they sure can, but it is very unlikely if they are dried at a steady temperature until they are completely done. I think that sundrying foods are more risky since the temperature can vary and the food is kept out for a longer period of time.

[vgloveforlife]

My daughter and I have gotten sick on dehydrated foods so many times. This reminds me that I plan to sell my excalibur. Dehydrated food is icky..I'd rather eat cooked.

[RawVee]

I've never had a problem with dehydrated foods. But on the ones that take longer to dehydrate, like bread, I always start the process at 120 degrees and then lower it. There's a lot of threads on here about that--the internal temp of the food doesn't actually get to 120 degrees. I think there are plenty of people (like Alissa!) who successfully make dehydrated foods and don't get sick from them. I'd check out the threads on this forum. :)

[hypnocmt]

I've never gotten sick from dehydrated foods. I am also a serious hand washer! HA!

Ya gotta get in there and scrub, under the nails too, for a couple whole minutes. Get up on your wrists and forearms too. Then the rinsing is the most important part. Rinse so the water goes down your arms toward your elbows, so that the bacteria is whisked clean off of you and not back onto your fingers.

Mostly when I see people actually washing their hands after the loo, they're just wetting down the e.coli on their fingers...not actually WASHING at all. Who the hell wants to walk around with bacterial mud on their hands? Not me! WASH WASH WASH!

[RawVegan4Health]

Bacteria need food, water and air to survive. The dehydrator deprives them of the water. Unless the food is already pretty well covered in bacteria, the amount of time the food sits in the dehydrator in a moist state should not allow a large amount of bacteria to colonize. It could happen however, but like I said it is going to have to alrady be farily well contaminated. Once the moisture is gone this bacteria will die off, but the toxins left behind could be bad.

My suggestions is, if you aren't willing to eat it raw because it might be bad for you, don't dehydrate it. Otherwise there is basically no difference.

If you heated it at a higher temperature, say 200 degrees, the food is still going to spend a lot of time below 140 as it heats up from room (or refrigerator) temperature up to 200. So the bacteria can still thrive even then, and will be killed of in the same manner as in the dehydrator. I see no difference.