If cooked food, including soup, can't be kept at 140 degrees or higher, you must cool it quickly to room temperature and refrigerate or freeze within two hours. Harold McGee had the same question, especially when he heard about the food writer Michael Ruhlman’s practice of using stock from a pot left out all week. You can cut back on your waste by storing your food properly, planning to use foods promptly, and preserving your own foods. If you’ve ever intentionally or accidentally left a soup or stock in the pot overnight, you’ve probably wondered if it is still safe to eat after reheating. Even by using leftovers and items in the refrigerator and pantry (some on the verge of spoiling), when you are setting out to make a really good soup, try to use fresh ingredients. Rearrange: Store soup on the top shelf and move perishables like milk or meat to the bottom of the refrigerator. Leave the soup covered to limit evaporation and stir it every 10 to 15 minutes to prevent the soup from burning. But the final adjustments are essential. Ice it: Plunge soup-filled containers of soup into a sink filled with ice. Not only will you keep your refrigerator a little cleaner, you'll also save yourself some money. Season well Soup makes a wonderful addition to any meal, and once you make a pot or two, it’s really not that hard. You can also warm a covered, oven-safe pot of soup in the oven at 250 F to prevent the soup from burning. For bacterial spoilage, keeping the soup hot would be more effective. To keep food out of the Danger Zone, keep cold food cold, at or below 40 F, and hot food hot, at or above 140 F. Following these simple steps will ensure that your food remains safe to eat for you and your family. I find the fresh soup seems to taste a bit better then to keep adding to the old soup, although I have done it many times and have had it going for months, over time I found 5 days is enough. Although, you can keep it going indefinitely because 180°F is like freezing it, I usually keep it going only about 5 days. Unfortunately, food spoilage is a big problem that creates a lot of waste. After cooking your soup on the stove, turn the heat down to low to keep it warm for a few hours. People can use leftover vegetable scraps to make a soup stock. There are parsnips, carrots, celery, onions, green beans, chicken, and noodles in it. Even stale bread makes toast or breadcrumbs. The high temperatures of simmering would keep the bacterial level pretty much nil, but the constant heat will ruin your soup on it's own. ... preserving the food in this way can prevent it from spoiling and being thrown away. 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