In mass institutional feeding places, such as restaurants, hospitals, cafeterias, or the like, it is common to cook or prepare foods in bulk, store the cooked food, and then ultimately sometime later reconstitute or reheat the food and serve same. This is particularly true where the kitchen help works in only certain shifts, but the food might be needed at different and additional times. Thus, many roasts may be prepared simultaneously in an oven, only to have the cooked roasts subsequently stored whole for reheating and proportioning later into individual servings. Likewise, stews or the like may be prepared in large steam table pans, such as 12 inches .times. 20 inches .times. 2 inches deep, chilled after cooking and stored, and subsequently reheated, portioned out, and served.
One serious problem with this general approach is that food, particularly meat, is likely to take on bacteria if it is held at moderate temperatures less than 140.degree. F. and not yet as cool as 45.degree. F. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Department of Health, Education and Welfare considers meat as a hazardous food and has most stringent rules already both for the institutional serving and storing of meat. It is particularly ironic that, as yet, no FDA rules specify any maximum cool down time; to the end that the large cooked masses of food actually linger within this danger temperature range a significant duration in everyday practice using conventional refrigeration equipment.