What is a TCS food?

Older training called these "potentially hazardous foods," but the current term on the ServSafe exam and in the FDA Food Code is TCS food. What makes a food TCS is a combination of moisture and nutrients that bacteria love, plus a neutral-ish acidity, exactly the conditions in FAT TOM.

Common TCS foods

• Milk and dairy products
• Meat, poultry, fish and shellfish
• Shell eggs
• Cooked rice, beans, pasta and other cooked plant foods
• Cut leafy greens and cut tomatoes
• Cut melons (a classic exam answer)
• Tofu and other soy protein
• Sprouts and raw seed sprouts
• Sliced or cut ready-to-eat produce and garlic-in-oil mixtures

What is NOT a TCS food

Dry and shelf-stable foods generally are not TCS: uncooked dry rice or pasta, crackers, flour, sugar, whole uncut produce, and unopened commercially processed items like ketchup. Once you cut, cook or add moisture, many of these become TCS, a cut melon is TCS even though a whole melon is not.

Why it matters for the exam

Nearly every temperature rule on the ServSafe Food Handler exam, cold holding at 41°F, hot holding at 135°F, the 4-hour rule, the 7-day rule, applies specifically to TCS foods. Being able to spot which foods are TCS is what makes those rules click. Practice it in our Temperature Danger Zone Quiz.