Don’t Be Haunted by Food-Borne Illness
Contact(s): Dr. Davey Griffin, 979-845-6489, dgriff@tamu.edu
This includes cooking meat properly at home and being careful in restaurants, said Dr. Davey Griffin.
“We need to make sure that we take time to be sure that the products we’re cooking are cooked adequately,” Griffin said.
Meats have known pathogens associated with them, he said, and it’s hard to manufacturer those pathogens out.
“These bacteria are in our environment,” he said.
The meat industry – from producer to packer – is trying to reduce the number of pathogens in meat.
“However, because these (pathogens) are really, really small, there is absolutely no way that we can keep them all out and guarantee that there is not going to be some of those bacteria there,” he said.
Testing will not catch all of them, he explained.
“We’re talking about minute, very small bacteria,” he said. “If we don’t happen to take a sample that includes one of those bacteria, then we can kind of get a false statement or false feeling of security because we got a negative test for bacteria that might have actually been there. To be sure it’s not there, you would have to sample it all, and if we sample it all, there’s none left to eat.”
When eating out, ask for hamburgers that are medium well to well done, he said.
“I’m a big proponent of cutting it in half and making sure that it is not pink in the middle,” he said.
If you have children, check their hamburgers as well, he urged.
At home, practice safety before, during and after cooking meat. Consumers should buy a dial or digital meat thermometer, he said, the best being one can be calibrated. Hands should be washed thoroughly before cooking and after handling raw meat.
Cook solid-muscle cuts like beef, lamb or pork steaks or roasts to an internal temperature of 140 F, he said. Use a meat thermometer, making sure the thermometer goes into the centermost portion of the cut.
“We can be pretty assured that if we cook the outside of a product like steak or roast, and we get those done on the outside, then they don’t have to be as well done on the inside,” he said.
That’s because the inside of most solid muscle is essentially sterile, he explained.
On the other hand, ground beef or pork meat products need to be cooked to 160 F.
“If you take that steak and grind it up – where the outside of that steak is distributed within the ground meat product – then we have to consider it all like we would the outside of the product.”
That means anything on the outside of the product, including any potential pathogens, is now on the inside.
“So it only makes sense that we cook it to a level that we’ll be sure that we do kill those bacteria before they have a chance to cause food safety hazards,” Griffin said.
Measuring crumbled ground meat’s temperature is a little trickier, but it can be done in the pan or in a dish by surrounding the thermometer with the meat. Patties can be picked up with tongs and the thermometer inserted from the side.
“Be sure to check more than one patty, because you will have hot spots and cold spots” when cooking on the grill, he said.
Whole cuts of poultry need to be cooked to an internal temperature of 180-185 F, and ground poultry should be cooked to at least 165, he said.
“Poultry products are a little higher (temperature) because we know there’s a little higher percentage chance of them having especially salmonella, which is one of those pathogens of concern on poultry products,” he said.
Ground meat patties should be thawed before cooking, he said, epecially if patties are thicker and heavier. The danger lies in the outside being cooked long before the inside.
“If you can put them in the refrigerator the day before and let them at least temper or start to thaw out, then it’s much easier to get them done all at the same time, very uniformly,” he said.
If meat is left on the sink or outside, it will thaw quickly but the chances that it will have bacterial contamination or spoilage are much greater, he said. And be sure and follow manufacturer’s recommendations if thawing meat in a microwave.
“The problem with a microwave – and especially with cooking with a microwave – is that you are going to have hot and cold spots.
When using a microwave, take multiple temperatures to make sure the thermometer is not placed in a cold spot in the meat, he said.
Do not put cooked meat on the same unwashed plate or cutting board that contained raw meat, he said.
“Cutting boards are certainly an issue when you think about cross-contamination,” Griffin said.
Consumers should follow the lead of restaurants that have color-coded cutting boards for cooked and raw meat, he suggested.
“Keep two in your house, so you never have to be confused as to which one is for raw and which one is for cooked foods,” he said.
Keeping safe may be a lot of trouble, Griffin said, but the payoff is worth it.
“The consequences for not doing that are much, much worse than just the small amount of time it would take to maintain safety,” he said. “If you’ve ever had one of these food-borne pathogens, you never want to have it happen again.”
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