Refrigerating after reheating?
Yesterday, I got a calzone from a pizzeria, took it home and refrigerated it immediately.
This morning, I reheated it in the microwave and ate some. Then, I put it back in the fridge. Later today, I reheated it again in the microwave and ate the rest.
Now besides poor food quality (which it was), was this "okay" to do as far as health/bacteria is concerned?
I did a search for this but didn't find anything.
Best Answer
Same answer as always: you don't want to eat any perishable food or food for which any part has spent more than about 4 hours cumulative over its lifetime in the danger zone (40 - 140 F, 4 - 60 C).
Do you know how the pizza place treated the calzones before you even received it? It may have been sitting on a shelf at room temperature for an hour or two at the store before you ordered it, in addition to the transport time when you took it home, and all the times as you heated and cooled it when it was in the zone.
In general to reduce the quality degradation, and the amount of time food ends up moving through the danger zone, you normally only want to heat up the portion of food you intend to eat, and leave the rest refrigerated.
See also: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/tags/food-safety/info
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Quick Answer about "Refrigerating after reheating?"
After each reheating, leftovers will be safe in the fridge for an additional three to four days. Because the quality decreases each time food is reheated, it is best to reheat only the amount needed. Cooked foods that cannot be used within four days should be frozen for longer, safe storage.Meal Prep Questions - Refrigerate or Freeze Meals - Keeping Fresh - Eating On Weekends
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