Ontario Food Handler Certification Practice Exam 2025 - Free Food Handler Certification Practice Questions and Study Guide

Maintaining temperature control during food preparation is crucial for food safety, as it helps prevent the growth of harmful bacteria. Regularly monitoring and recording food temperatures allows food handlers to ensure that foods are kept within safe temperature ranges throughout the cooking, holding, and serving processes. This practice includes checking both the temperatures of cooked foods to ensure they reach the appropriate internal temperature and monitoring holding temperatures to keep foods out of the danger zone, which is between 4°C (40°F) and 60°C (140°F).

This proactive approach minimizes the risk of foodborne illnesses by allowing food handlers to take corrective actions if temperatures are not within the safe range. By contrast, cooking food at high temperatures only does not guarantee safety if temperatures are not verified through monitoring. Keeping food at room temperature increases the risk of bacterial growth, and relying solely on microwave ovens limits the ability to verify whether food reaches the appropriate cooking temperatures throughout. Thus, the practice of regularly monitoring and recording food temperatures is essential for safe food handling.