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I want to bring my prepped frozen meals to work and reheat them at about 6 pm. They will be sitting in my bag at room temp for ~9 hours. Will they still be safe to eat if I reheat them in the microwave? If not, are they any solutions around this?

Thanks.

Reed Smith
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    an insulated bag will keep the food cooler/frozen for longer. I would do this tbh, but I can't say it's safe according to official rules. It also depends how long the food stays frozen/cold, which may vary depending on the food. – Esther Nov 15 '22 at 19:41
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    In an insulated bag in a cool workplace you'll be defrosting the middle. That *should* be enough to keep all of it as cold as in a fridge, but not provably so. An extra ice pack would also help. – Chris H Nov 15 '22 at 21:25
  • How well insulated is your bag? Are there cold packs in there as well as the food? The answer is no, or it's yes, and which depends... – Ecnerwal Nov 15 '22 at 21:34
  • Actually, safety cannot be determined by looking at the bag insulation. As in the linked question, your food is safe for 2 hours since the last timepoint at which you can prove that your food was below 4 Celsius. Such proof is impossible from just data on the bag insulation, you would have to measure the temperature directly. – rumtscho Nov 15 '22 at 22:00
  • Such proof is **trivial** if it's still frozen, due to adequate insulation and/or cold packs. Not too hard to have a thermometer, either. The linked question is about "oops I forgot refrigerated food on the counter" which is a far different question than "I'm deliberately packing frozen food to keep it edible." – Ecnerwal Nov 29 '22 at 00:50

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