Editorial policy
How this handbook is written and kept accurate
The rules this handbook follows, so readers can judge how much weight to give what they read here. Last updated 2026-10-22.
Sources
Food safety is a health topic, so the handbook uses only government sources for safety statements: the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, FoodSafety.gov, the US Food and Drug Administration (including the FDA Food Code) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Blogs, manufacturers' material, recipe sites and forum posts are not used as the basis for any safety statement.
Temperatures and times
Every temperature and time stated as a number on this site comes from a cited USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service or US Food and Drug Administration document. FoodSafety.gov and the CDC are cited only for statements without a number, such as who is most at risk or how botulism toxin forms. Celsius figures are arithmetic conversions of the Fahrenheit values, rounded to one decimal place.
Where the guidance does not give a number, the handbook explains the principle and says that it is not giving a number. In particular, it does not publish times for holding food at temperatures below the safe minimum internal temperatures, because the consumer guidance it relies on does not set those out for home cooks.
In one line
If a government food-safety source does not support a temperature, time or safety claim, it does not appear here.
Review against sources
Each guide shows a "last reviewed against sources" date. On 2026-10-21 every cited page was fetched once and searched, by an automated check, for the key figures the handbook takes from it. The FDA Food Code is published as a long document and its text was not machine-checked; statements drawn from it describe its approach in general terms. An independent human review against the sources has not been done yet.
Writing
- Plain language, with technical terms explained the first time they appear.
- Source material is paraphrased, not copied.
- Worked examples are labelled as examples. They describe no real person, kitchen or business.
- No "you must" instructions about health conditions, diets or medicines. Those questions belong with a qualified health professional.
Independence
The handbook is not affiliated with any appliance maker, bag maker, retailer or government agency. It names no brands and recommends no products. Equipment is described by type only.
Links
In this first edition, cited documents are named but not linked, so that every page can be reviewed before any outbound link is added. Any links added later will go only to pages that help the reader. Paid or sponsored links, if there ever are any, will be labelled as such on the page.
Updates and corrections
Government guidance changes from time to time. Pages will be re-checked against their sources when the sources change, and a correction that changes the meaning of a page will be noted on that page with its date. There is no contact route yet, so corrections currently come from that re-checking rather than from reader reports.
Use of AI
The guides were drafted with an AI system from the cited documents. They have not had an independent human editorial review or a review by a food-safety professional. The about page describes how the site was made.