Food Safety

SupperScout takes food safety seriously — but honestly: a recipe tool cannot make your kitchen safe. Only you can. Here's exactly what the tool does, and where its limits are.

What the tool checks (in code, not by AI judgment)

• USDA/FSIS safe internal temperatures: for recognized ingredients covered by its temperature rules, the code adds the relevant note to a generated recipe: poultry 165°F, ground meat 160°F, steaks/chops/roasts 145°F with a 3-minute rest, fish and shellfish 145°F, egg dishes 160°F.
• Raw/undercooked animal products: the tool checks generated instructions for a defined set of unsafe raw-food and undercooking patterns and rejects recipes that match those checks. These checks cannot detect every unsafe instruction.
• The 2-hour rule: recipes remind you to refrigerate perishables within 2 hours.

What the tool CANNOT do

• It can't see your ingredients — spoiled food looks the same as fresh food in a text list. When in doubt, throw it out.
• It can't verify your thermometer, your fridge temperature, or your hand-washing.
• It can't guarantee a recipe is allergen-free — always check product labels yourself.
• AI-generated steps can be wrong. If a step looks unsafe, don't follow it.

Kitchen practices that matter more than any app

• Keep raw meat separate from ready-to-eat food; wash hands, boards, and knives after handling it.
• Don't leave perishable food at room temperature for more than 2 hours (1 hour if it's above 90°F).
• Reheat leftovers to an internal 165°F (74°C), verified with a food thermometer. Reheat only the portion you need when practical: safely handled leftovers may be reheated more than once, though quality drops each round, and safely handled leftovers — including ones reheated to 165°F — may be refrozen.
• Thaw frozen food in the fridge, not on the counter.

Source for temperature guidance: USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). For complete guidance, see foodsafety.gov.

If a recipe looks unsafe

Don't cook it — and report it so we can tighten the checks. See also How SupperScout works for the full validation pipeline.