Time and temperature are codependent. Together, they are the two most important factors in keeping food safe, and also the two easiest things we can draw on to modify an environment to ensure pathogens don't reach dangerous levels in food. Most of what we do to prevent and destroy bacteria in food is related to time and temperature control. Remember: Hazardous food should only be left in the danger zone for a maximum of two hours during food preparation tasks. At all other times, food should be kept at temperatures outside the danger zone, which is easily accomplished through cooking temperatures and storage temperatures - both of which you will explore further in Module 4: Safe Food Handling.