410 IAC 7-21-25 "Potentially hazardous food" defined

Sec. 25. (a) "Potentially hazardous food" means a natural or synthetic food and requires temperature control because it is in a form capable of supporting any of the following: (1) The rapid and progressive growth of infectious or toxigenic micro-organisms. (2) The growth and toxin production of Clostridium botulinum. (3) In raw shell eggs, the growth of Salmonella enteritidis. (b) The term includes the following: (1) A food of animal origin that is raw or heat-treated. (2) A food of plant origin that is heat-treated or consists of raw seed sprouts. (3) Cut melons. (4) Garlic-in-oil mixtures that are not modified in a way that results in mixtures that do not support growth as specified under subsection (a). (c) The term does not include any of the following: (1) An air-cooled hard-boiled egg with shell intact. (2) A food with a water activity (aw) value of eighty-five hundredths (0.85) or less. (3) A food with a pH level of four and six-tenths (4.6) or below when measured at seventy-five (75) degrees Fahrenheit. (4) A food, in an unopened hermetically sealed container that is commercially processed to achieve and maintain commercial sterility under conditions of nonrefrigerated storage and distribution. (5) A food for which laboratory evidence demonstrates that the rapid and progressive growth of infectious or toxigenic micro-organisms or the growth of Salmonella enteritidis in eggs or Clostridium botulinum cannot occur, such as a food that: (A) has an aw and a pH that are above the levels specified under subdivisions (2) and (3); and (B) may contain a preservative, other barrier to the growth of micro-organisms, or a combination of barriers that inhibit the growth of micro-organisms. (6) A food that may contain an infectious or toxigenic micro-organism or chemical or physical contaminant at a level sufficient to cause illness, but that does not support the growth of micro-organisms as specified under subsection (a).