The grocery store is a place to buy ingredients, but when you’re pressed for time, there is almost always a prepared foods section that means you don’t have to lift a finger in the kitchen on busy nights. Prepared foods are usually placed on refrigerated shelves or under heat lamps, and they sit there all day — and sometimes even for a few days — until someone like you tosses them in the grocery cart and eats them at home. But you could be making a big shopping mistake by adding these to your cart because they might increase your risk of foodborne illness.
While you might love those pre-made foods from Costco or Whole Foods, they could potentially make you sick. That’s because it’s difficult for grocery stores to keep the foods as hot or cold as they need to be. And if those foods stay in the danger zone for more than two hours, the USDA says they’re unsafe to eat.
Prepared meals could harbor a lot of bacteria
The danger zone is known as any temperature between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s the range at which bacteria can multiply quickly, which is likely why you’ve heard before that you shouldn’t keep food out on the counter for more than two hours. Bacteria like E. coli and salmonella can rapidly reproduce under such conditions, ultimately increasing your risk of getting sick.
Darin Detwiler, chair of the National Environmental Health Association’s Food Safety Program, told HuffPost that he blames the risk of buying pre-made foods partially on the danger zone but also on potential cross-contamination from the “dirty hands” of lax employees. The employees might not wash their hands properly between handling raw chicken then handling a salad, for example. “This ‘hybrid’ retail restaurant situation is one of those convenience items that increase sales while also increasing risks related to significant failures in food safety.”
Other factors to watch out for when buying pre-made meals
Beyond the risk of food poisoning, other issues arise when buying prepared foods. They’re often loaded with sodium, and high sodium intake is linked to certain health issues. Plus, you might notice they hardly have nutrition information — that’s because thanks to a loophole with the FDA, fresh-prepared meals don’t require it, meaning you can’t even be sure that what you’re eating is healthy.
A Consumer Reports study revealed that most supermarkets don’t make every prepared dish in-house. Rather, a number of items, such as soups, could be made at a bigger commercial kitchen, then shipped to stores. The stores might use grilled chicken prepared elsewhere in a salad that was prepared in-house, but the chicken itself might not have been. Plus, some meals are actually delivered to the restaurant frozen. However, they’re heated in the restaurant’s kitchen then placed in the prepared foods section, so they’re perceived by customers to be fresh. Ultimately, you might be tempted to buy pre-made food on a busy night, but a better option could be meal-prepping at the beginning of the week or freezing the leftovers from previous meals, so you always have safe options in the fridge.
