I have a recipe for pumpkin bars that uses cream cheese. Do the bars need to be refrigerated?
5 Comments
ChefOnoOctober 16, 2013
Oh, and in case you're wondering, sugar "binds" water so as to make it unavailable to microbes. Compare a glass of water to a wet sponge. It's something like that.
ChefOnoOctober 16, 2013
A sufficiently high sugar content will indeed prevent bacterial growth but the equation must consider the entire recipe. In other words, a sugar to everything else ratio. Since the other ingredients are unknown, the answer defaults to "yes".
Technically, to determine if a food is or is not potentially hazardous (does or does not require refrigeration), both the pH (acidity) and aW (water activity level) must be measured, a process which requires laboratory equipment. When in doubt, keep it cold.
what's F.October 16, 2013
I thought it had something to do with the sugar and cream cheese ratio. High amounts of sugar kill bacteria?
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