How Long Are Baked Potatoes Good For

An infographic explaining how to ensure your baked potato is safe to eat.

If you demand a quick repast that takes little to no maintenance, a broiled potato might exist your best choice. They're inexpensive, tasty, and a healthy alternative to French fries and hamburgers. All the same, if cooled improperly, this starchy vegetable can yield unsavory results.

Perhaps the almost concerning consequence of cooling a baked potato improperly is the potential growth of Clostridium botulinum, which is a group of bacteria that can cause botulism. Botulism is a serious illness that can pb to paralysis and even death if left untreated. Symptoms include difficulty breathing and swallowing, vomiting, blurred or double vision, dry out oral cavity, and amorphous eyelids.

The good news is that botulinum bacteria need a low-oxygen environment to grow and thrive, which means that most food is prophylactic from botulinum bacteria. The bad news is that when you wrap your potato in aluminum foil to bake, the potato is at present in a low-oxygen surround.

Is aluminum foil dangerous?

So does that hateful your murphy is going to give you botulism if you cook it in can foil? Not necessarily. Aluminum foil helps the skin on your potato stay nice and soft, and it is rubber to use as long as yous don't allow your baked white potato to cool down to a dangerous temperature while still in the foil after cooking.

What are dangerous temperatures?

Your white potato is at a dangerous temperature when it is betwixt 41–135 degrees Fahrenheit. Nutrient experts call this range the temperature danger zone because within these temperatures, it is easiest for bacteria to multiply to dangerous levels on your food.

You lot need to exist aware of the temperature your baked potato is at, but you too need to be conscious of the amount of time you get out it out of the oven also. These two factors are important because baked potatoes are considered to be a time/temperature command for safety (TCS) food. TCS foods, as they are commonly called, are foods that require attention to fourth dimension and temperature, meaning that you need to be aware of how long you go out a nutrient out at room temperature too as how you cook and cool the food. Information technology is important to be witting of TCS foods because, if kept in the temperature danger zone for four hours or more, TCS foods can grow harmful amounts of bacteria on them, creating foodborne illnesses.

What makes a TCS food?

In that location are five questions you should enquire yourself when identifying a TCS nutrient.

Does this food accept a high or low acidity level?
Leaner grows more readily on foods with lower acidity. For instance, pineapple is highly acidic, so leaner volition exist less likely to grow on it if you leave it out in the open for a long time. Cantaloupe, withal, has lower acidity and will grow unsafe levels of leaner if non refrigerated.
How much wet does this nutrient contain?
The more moisture a food has, the more than likely it is to grow harmful bacteria. Watermelon is one example of a food that contains high moisture.
How do the acidity and moisture interact with each other?
Y'all demand to await at both the moisture content and acidity level together to determine if a food is considered a TCS nutrient or not. For case, although lemonade is high in moisture, it likewise has high acidity so it is not a TCS food. Love apple juice, still, has high moisture and low acidity—the perfect combination to create bacteria—making tomato juice a TCS food.
Does it affair how this food is heated and cooled?
If it matters how you cook or cool the food, it may be considered a TCS item. For instance, broiled bread is not a TCS nutrient. You don't demand to worry about how long yous leave it at room temperature, how you warm it up, or how you cool it downward. Chicken, on the other hand, is a TCS food. Information technology is important how you cook it and absurd it down, and it makes a big difference whether or not you leave information technology out on the counter overnight.
Does this nutrient need to exist packaged or stored in a specific way?
Determine if there is a special way (such as refrigerating) that you demand to store the food in order to prevent information technology from spoiling. If it requires a sure temperature with its packaging or storage, chances are it's a TCS nutrient.

If you ask these five questions most a potato, you volition probably note that uncooked potatoes practice non contain enough wet to exist a TCS food. When cooked, however, potatoes become a TCS nutrient because their wet level increases.

How tin I brand sure my broiled murphy is safe to eat?

You want to be able to eat your murphy without worrying if you are going to become food poisoning or botulism. Here'due south how you lot can ensure that your broiled potatoes are safe to eat.

DON'T allow your potato sit down out in the open at room temperature for over four hours regardless of whether or not it is wrapped in aluminum foil. Although botulinum bacteria cannot grow without the presence of aluminum foil, (or something that prevents the potato from being exposed to air) other bacteria tin can all the same grow on the irish potato if it is left out at room temperature.
DO serve potatoes immediately after baking them or store them in the refrigerator to keep your spud at a safety temperature. If you lot use aluminum foil, remove the foil straight later blistering to preclude botulinum bacteria from growing.
DON'T identify a baked tater in the fridge with the aluminum foil still on it. Your murphy volition have to pass through the temperature danger zone as it cools down, and if the aluminum foil is still on it, botulinum leaner may have the potential to grow.
Exercise remove the aluminum foil from your irish potato before storing information technology in the refrigerator.

By following these guidelines, you can experience confident that your next baked potato bar is a safe and scrumptious success. Don't be agape to employ aluminum foil—merely recall that your potato needs to exhale too.

Learn more than food safety tips in the StateFoodSafety Food Handler Grade.

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—Elizabeth Dodds

Editor's notation: This post was originally published in March 2016 and has been updated for freshness, accurateness, and comprehensiveness.