Food safety is not simple
Bill Warren of CBS 7 television in Texas reports that no one has to get sick from E. coli O157:H7 contaminated meat, as long as, "you keep everything clean, and cook the meat thoroughly."
Cross-contamination and cooking a hamburger to 160F are not simple tasks. Most of food safety is not simple.
Warren also says that plastic cutting boards are safer than wooden, and that if the juice is still pink, "it's not done yet. If it's clear, it's done." Not so.
The only way to ensure that hamburger has reached such a temperature is to use a tip probe, instant-read digital meat thermometer. Research has shown that colour is a lousy indicator of doneness -- some burgers turn brown prematurely before 70 degrees C is reached, others can remain pinkish well beyond 70.
To further complicate matters, an individual hamburger will cook at different rates throughout the burger depending on thickness and fat content.
In one study it was found that when the outer temperature of hamburgers reached a temperature of 71.1ºC, the inside was only at a temperature of 56.7ºC. To check a burger, grab it with tongs, insert the thermometer sideways into the middle of the burger and wait a few seconds. As Pete Snyder of the Hospitality Institute in Minnesota has documented, when done correctly, one can observe the hot temperature at the surface and, as the probe is pushed into the hamburger, the temperature goes down. As the probe passes through the cold spot, the temperature goes up again. It is critically important that temperature not be taken with a stationary thermometer, but in a dynamic manner by pushing through the hamburger, so that a few Salmonella or E. coli in the middle of the hamburger are reduced.
Cross-contamination and cooking a hamburger to 160F are not simple tasks. Most of food safety is not simple.
Warren also says that plastic cutting boards are safer than wooden, and that if the juice is still pink, "it's not done yet. If it's clear, it's done." Not so.
The only way to ensure that hamburger has reached such a temperature is to use a tip probe, instant-read digital meat thermometer. Research has shown that colour is a lousy indicator of doneness -- some burgers turn brown prematurely before 70 degrees C is reached, others can remain pinkish well beyond 70.
To further complicate matters, an individual hamburger will cook at different rates throughout the burger depending on thickness and fat content.
In one study it was found that when the outer temperature of hamburgers reached a temperature of 71.1ºC, the inside was only at a temperature of 56.7ºC. To check a burger, grab it with tongs, insert the thermometer sideways into the middle of the burger and wait a few seconds. As Pete Snyder of the Hospitality Institute in Minnesota has documented, when done correctly, one can observe the hot temperature at the surface and, as the probe is pushed into the hamburger, the temperature goes down. As the probe passes through the cold spot, the temperature goes up again. It is critically important that temperature not be taken with a stationary thermometer, but in a dynamic manner by pushing through the hamburger, so that a few Salmonella or E. coli in the middle of the hamburger are reduced.
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BarfBlog -
May 15, 2008 8:58 AM
When people write using exclamation marks, especially in an e-mail or web-based postings, they seem to be yelling, At the reader. At me. The U.K. Institute of Food Science & Technology issued an update yesterday on avoiding cross-contamination in t...
BarfBlog -
July 2, 2008 7:29 AM
Me and Misti Crane, of The Columbus Dispatch, had a chat about all things food safety yesterday, as 18 people in Ohio and another 20 in Michigan have been stricken with the same strain of E. coli O157:H7, linked to...
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How about cooking frozen soy burgers (Morning Star Farms, Boca, etc.)? Any special precautions to take? Thanks...