Cook Up Success with the Illinois Food Safety Manager Exam 2026 – Serve Safety and Rock Your Certification!

The proper cooling guidelines for hot food state that food must be cooled from its initial temperature down to 70°F within two hours. After reaching 70°F, it then must continue to cool down to 41°F within an additional four hours.

In this scenario, since the mashed potatoes cooled from 135°F to 68°F in two hours, they have already reached the first cooling threshold of 70°F. Therefore, the time the employee has left to continue cooling the mashed potatoes from 68°F down to 41°F is the remainder of the total cooling period, which is four hours from the point they reached 70°F. In total, this means they have four hours left to cool from 68°F to 41°F, confirming that the selected answer is indeed the appropriate choice.