While slow cookers are a fantastic way to create delicious meals with minimal to no effort, there have been a lot of concerns surrounding the possibility of contracting food poisoning. This food safety concern primarily comes in the form of internet warnings around salmonella poisoning and botulism.
The former is an issue that occurs with eating undercooked meat, eggs, and poultry and the latter, foodborne botulism, occurs from incorrectly cooked home-canned foods like beans.
Both of these issues happen when bacteria grows due to low cooking temperatures and as we know, slow cookers are on the lower end of the cooking temperature range.
So, can slow cookers cause food poisoning?
If you are using appropriate cooking methods and are using your slow cooker properly, your slow cooker shouldn’t cause food posioning. The slow cooker, while designed to cook at a lower temperature range, is still outside the temperature danger zone for food poisoning. Slow cookers cook food between 170-280 degrees Fahrenheit, while food poisoning requires food to be cooked at 140 degrees Fahrenheit or below.
Are Slow Cookers Toxic?
While lead is a naturally occurring heavy metal, it is also a toxic one that has a low melting point and can cause some severe illnesses if ingested.
In children, lead can impact brain development, cause behavioral disorders and mental retardation. It can also cause anemia, hypertension, renal impairment, immunotoxicity, and at high levels, causes death, convulsions, and coma(1).
What does lead have to do with slow cookers? A lot of ceramic inserts for slow cookers are glazed before going into the kiln. If the ceramic insert is baked for long enough at a high enough temperature, the lead in the ceramic glaze can leach out into the food, causing lead poisoning.
While this can happen with ceramic slow cookers, it’s much more likely to occur with antique or handmade ceramics which are often baked in old kilns that have lead residue in them
Nowadays, the vast majority of slow cookers and their ceramic inserts do not contain any leaded glaze and fall well within the government guidelines for the amount of lead that is found within them.
Almost all mass-produced slow cookers are marked as safe in so long as there is no chipping, cracking, or haziness to the glaze.
Can I Leave Food In a Slow Cooker Overnight?
The answer to this question is yes and no. To make this easy, we will break it down into the following scenarios.
- You can leave food in your slow cooker overnight if your slow cooker is a) functioning correctly, b) a newer model.
- If your slow cooker is an older model, it is suggested that you do not leave food in it overnight. The primary concern here is that it is a fire hazard
- If you have a programmable slow cooker, these will automatically shut off after a certain amount of time. Generally, the automatic cycle is 24 hours but check with your manual first. Leaving it for 8-10 hours overnight should not be an issue. So, if you have a programmable slow cooker, make sure to have it set accordingly for the amount of time you will be leaving it unattended.
- If you are planning on turning your slow cooker off overnight with food in it, do not do it ! Food cannot last for longer than 2 hours at room temperature before bacteria growth starts. If you find that your slow cooker has shut off during the night or has been unplugged accidentally and has been sitting for longer than an hour or two at room temperature, do not eat. Even if the food looks cooked and smells fine, do not eat.
If you do choose to leave food in the slow cooker overnight, do not place it on the “keep warm” setting. This setting is only meant to be on for 1-2 hours at best, as any longer than this and you are risking bacteria growth, especially if the keep warm setting is close to 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cooking food overnight is very doable, but if you are just wanting to keep your food warm or “ready to eat”, it is best to refrigerate and reheat on the stove or in the oven.
How To Store Slow Cooker Leftovers
Once you are done eating your food, any leftovers that you have should be placed into the fridge or freezer within two hours of being cooked. Cool the leftovers on the countertop down to about room temperature before placing them into the fridge or freezer for storage purposes.
Can You Reheat Food in a Slow Cooker?
When you go to reheat your food, do not do this in a slow cooker. It takes way too long for the food to be brought up to a safe temperature to eat. Instead, reheat your food in a microwave, on the stovetop, or in the oven until it reaches at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
You can then take your hot food and place it in a slow cooker on the “keep warm” setting for up to two hours, in so long as the heat setting hits 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
How Long Is It Safe To Leave Food In a Slow Cooker?
The technical answer to this question from a food safety standpoint is that in so long as the food doesn’t go below 140 degrees Fahrenheit, you can leave it safely in the slow cooker for as long as you want.
Essentially, what you are doing is preserving your food by keeping it warm at all times. However, there are some drawbacks to doing this with foods that require a lot of stirring (soups/stews), as you can dry the food out, burn it, or turn it into mush if you leave it across several days
Can You Store a Slow Cooker or Crockpot In the Fridge?
While it is not advised to do so, there is no reason why you cannot store your slow cooker or Crockpot in the fridge with food in it either before or after cooking.
This question often comes up because individuals are worried about their slow cooker becoming damaged, however, in so long as you aren’t putting a slow cooker that just came off high heat into the fridge, you are good to go.
Here are a few tips with storing your slow cooker in the fridge.
- Allow your slow cooker to cool down before placing it in the fridge as you do not want a) heat your fridge up with condensation from the ceramic vessel and b) you do not want to shatter your glass shelves due to the heat differential. You also do not want the glass lid of the slow cooker to shatter either.
- You can prepare all of your food the night before, place it in your slow cooker and then store it in the fridge before cooking in the morning.
- If you notice that the glaze is cracking on your crockpot or slow cooker because you are putting it into the fridge, immediately stop. You do not want to risk any type of food or potential lead poisoning from the damaged glaze. Replace the slow cooker.
- You may run into an issue with food spoilage depending on what recipes you are leaving in your slow cooker, in the fridge. Ideally, it is better to take food and place it into covered/sealed containers within two hours of cooking.
If your slow cooker has a lot of air above the food, it is advised that you remove the food from the slow cooker and place it into airtight containers.
Wrapping It Up: Safety Reminders
Please be advised that you do not want to cook from frozen, as meat or poultry can cause foodborne illnesses due to not reaching 140 degrees quickly enough during the cooking process.
Other than this, always preheat your slow cooker before adding in ingredients, as this shortens the time that foods are in the temperature danger zone.
Finally, do not cook foods on the warm setting, and always check your food with a thermometer before eating. You want your food to be at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit before consumption.