Disclaimer

Everything on KitchenGearCalc is researched general information, not professional food safety advice. We are not a public health authority, a food scientist or an inspector, and nothing here should be treated as a substitute for the published guidance of the agencies that are.

Food safety specifically

This site covers sous vide, vacuum sealing, fermentation and dehydrating, all of which are genuine food safety topics rather than matters of taste. A few things follow from that, and they are worth stating plainly rather than burying.

• Pasteurization is time and temperature together. A temperature on its own is not a safety claim. Where we give a temperature below a published safe minimum, we say explicitly that it is a texture preference and not a safety statement.
• We do not publish hold times below the USDA safe minimum internal temperature. Those come from the FSIS Appendix A lethality tables for a specific product and vary with fat and salt content. Our calculators return nothing there and point you at the source. A disclaimer makes general information safe to publish; it does not make a wrong number right, so we would rather publish no number.
• A vacuum bag is anaerobic, which is the condition Clostridium botulinum prefers. Vacuum sealing slows spoilage organisms while removing a barrier against others. It extends storage life and it does not replace refrigeration.
• The danger zone is real. The USDA defines 40 F to 140 F as the range where bacteria multiply rapidly, with a published limit of two hours total, or one hour above 90 F. That clock runs across the whole life of the food, not just the cooking step.
• Drying does not make meat safe. Jerky needs to reach its safe minimum internal temperature independently of the drying step.

Calculated figures

Where a figure is derived rather than quoted, the page says so and names the model. Come-up times use a one dimensional conduction model calibrated so that a one inch slab takes one hour, and they round long deliberately. Vacuum boiling points use the Antoine equation. These are approximations of physical behaviour, useful for planning and not a substitute for measuring the actual food with a thermometer.

Equipment

Always follow the manual that came with your machine, particularly for anything involving pressure, steam or a locking lid. Specifications quoted here are the manufacturer's and can change between production runs. Pressure cooking and pressure canning are different processes with different procedures, and nothing on this site applies to home canning.

We do not test products

Recommendations are built from published specifications, owner manuals, standards documents and recurring themes in verified owner reviews. We do not cook test batches or run instruments, and every page says so. Prices and availability change constantly and are not guaranteed.

Published sources we rely on

• USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures
• USDA FSIS Appendix A, Compliance Guideline for Meeting Lethality Performance Standards
• USDA FSIS, the Danger Zone (40 F to 140 F)
• FDA Bad Bug Book, Clostridium botulinum

If you find an error, the contact page goes to a person and corrections are prioritised over everything else.