What is the difference between ambient food and chilled food?

Answer 1

Ambient foods are those that are stored at ROOM TEMPERATURE such as tinned foods, tinned meats etc. These would normally in their unprocessed state require refrigeration i.e. A ham which is raw will require chilled storage but once cooked and processed it can stay in a tin in normal temperature. Milk is a classic example where fresh milk requires chilled storage yet processed milk (long like) has the ability to be stored in room temperature.

Chilled foods are those that re normally refrigerated between the temperatures of 1 degree to 7 degrees. These may not have been processed to allow for normal room storage i.e. packet hams, yogurts etc.

There are some in this class that are not effected by temperature but which are stored in either ambient or chilled these are things like white wine, soda drinks etc.

These are ambient but are described as "best served chilled".

Chilled food are normally whose shelf life is effected by temperature i.e. fresh meats, fish dairy products that go off when subjected to room temperatures.