A question about the Danger Zone"

I'd say it all fits... If you have food in an environment that's 70 degrees, the food is going to reach that temperature eventually, whether it's hotter than that or colder than that to start. Since we're concerned with the consumption of the food, it follows that it all eventually relates to the internal temp and not the environmental temp, but due to heat transfer, the environmental temp has a lot of influence over the internal temp of the food.

I was taught that the danger zone is the temps where bacterica can grow. from 41 degrees to 140 degrees So yes, all food passes thru a danger zone while it cooks. When internal food temp passes 140 the bacterica begin to die off. Under 41 they go dormant.

The longer food stays in the danger zone, more bacteria is born. So yes, this applies to the temp of the food itself, not the surrounding area.