How Long Can Food Safely Sit In A Slow Cooker On Warm?

If you want to use your Crock-Pot like a pro to reduce time spent in the kitchen and increase the quality of convenient and delicious home-cooked meals, one of the most important things to learn is the rules of slow cooker safety. While you can make apple cinnamon oatmeal in your slow cooker overnight for a truly bright and beautiful morning, this is only possible because the "low" setting on these popular appliances steadily heats your food to between 170 and 200 degrees Fahrenheit. This is low enough to cook your food slowly over many hours, but hot enough to prevent foodborne pathogens from taking hold.

The same can't be said for the "warm" setting. Though this setting certainly keeps your food from getting cold until you're ready to eat, leaving it there too long is one of the worst mistakes you can make when using your slow cooker. This setting only keeps your food at about 140 degrees Fahrenheit — just warm enough that your food still tastes delicious, but not hot enough to inhibit bacterial growth over long periods of time. To avoid food poisoning, experts recommend using this setting for no more than two to four hours at a time. This means it's perfectly safe to flip your Crock-Pot to "warm" after a long day at work to ensure your favorite slow cooker beef chili stays hot while you grab a quick shower and make some cornbread — but no longer than that.

As mentioned, the "warm" setting only keeps food warm, and only for a limited amount of time. It should only be used to keep cooked food hot until you're ready to eat it, and isn't suitable for cooking raw food. The lowest safe temperature at which all food should be consumed is 165 degrees Fahrenheit (according to the USDA, though certain foods can be safe at lower temps), meaning the warm setting is much too cool to cook food safely. Its main function is to keep food from cooling too quickly — it may only rise to about 140 degrees Fahrenheit, but your food is usually far hotter than that when you first flip the switch. Your food still cools, but much more slowly, which is why you can safely use it for up to four hours.

If you need to leave your slow cooker on warm for the maximum amount of time for any reason, you should check your food's temperature with a food thermometer before eating it. Even if the thermometer reads slightly below 165 degrees, your food is likely still free of harmful bacteria — provided your food hasn't been sitting for more than four hours. However, you should absolutely turn your slow cooker up to low until your food reaches 165 degrees (or higher). You can also move your food to another cooking vessel and bring it up to temperature on the stovetop if you're in a hurry. Food that has cooled to below 165 degrees for more than four hours should be discarded.