Storing hot food directly, or waiting too long to refrigerate it
Most Indian households let cooked food sit out until it reaches room temperature before putting it in the fridge. The logic is reasonable: hot containers fog up the fridge, raise internal temperature, and can damage older compressors. The problem is the window this creates. Between 5°C and 60°C, what food scientists call the danger zone, bacteria like Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus double roughly every 20 minutes. A pot of dal left on the counter for two hours can carry a bacterial load high enough to cause illness by the time it's refrigerated. A 2019 study in the Journal of Food Protection confirmed that cooked rice stored at room temperature for two hours before refrigeration reached counts of Bacillus cereus that exceeded safe thresholds. The fix is portioning: split the pot into shallow containers so heat escapes faster, and refrigerate within an hour.
