What's Wrong With This Picture?
These are actual photographs from different inspections in our county. Can you see what the problems are?
Here we have large frozen raw turkeys sitting in a sink. What's missing?
If you said running water, you are correct! That is the corrective action that was taken at the time of inspection. The turkeys were frozen solid.
But there are some other choices. When thawing out any time and temperature controlled for safety (TCS) food, you have a few options to do it properly.
Under refrigeration that maintains the food temperature at 41F or less; or
Completely submerged under running water:
At a water temperature of 70F or below,
With sufficient water velocity to agitate and float off loose particles in an overflow, and
For a period of time that does not allow thawed portions of ready-to-eat food to rise above (41F or
For a period of time that does not allow thawed portions of a raw animal food requiring cooking as specified under ¶ 3-401.11(A) or (B) to be above 41F, for more than 4 hours including (a) The time the food is exposed to the running water and the time needed for preparation for cooking, or (b) The time it takes under refrigeration to lower the food temperature to 41F;(C) As part of a cooking process if the food that is frozen is: (1) Cooked as specified under ¶ 3-401.11(A) or (B) or § 3-401.12, or (2) Thawed in a microwave oven.
This operator knew what to do and found a drain plug for the sink and started running cold water. Bravo!