Soccer-based food safety metaphors suck: give food bugs the red card this summer?

Posted: June 7th, 2010 - 9:29am by Doug Powell

We visited with our neighbors yesterday and their baby, Luna Sofia, who is currently called baby Luna Sofia although that may pass, and the Columbian mother asked if I was going to watch the World Cup of soccer.

I said no, and tried to extol the virtues of ice hockey.When I think of watching World Cup soccer I have this image of Malcolm McDowell being rehabilitated in A Clockwork Orange.

But that doesn’t stop the civilized British soccer fans from using bad World Cup metaphors to spread their faith-based food safety.

Food Safety Week starts today, and with many people likely to have barbecues or be eating outdoors for World Cup matches, the Food Standards Agency is reminding everyone that food bugs can cause more misery than a penalty shoot-out.

The U.K. Food Standards Agency also has some top food safety tips for people planning barbecues this summer:

* always make sure chicken, pork, burgers, sausages and kebabs are cooked until steaming hot all the way through, none of the meat should be pink and any juices must run clear.

This is wrong. Color is a lousy indicator and steaming hot means nothing. Although after my last post, a U.K. dude wrote in to say,

Not every mother of three children rushing about with a full time job has the time to use your wonderful tip thermometer and so visual advice is both sensible and correct.

Nope, still wrong, and in this case, sexist. What about fathers with four daughters making meals and a full-time job? Did it for years, with a tip-sensitive digital thermometer.

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Categories: Thermometers
Tags: clear, food standards agency, Juices, thermometer, Uk, world cup

Comments

Karl says:

Challenging the last poster's legitimate argument over semantics rather than addressing the real issue, well done again DP! Bit of a shame really, given the distinct lack of discussion in the comments section compared to other blogs. An unfortunate fact of life is that we are never going to get the vast majority of your average punters to have a digital thermometer in the kitchen, let alone have them use it properly, or clean and santise it properly in between uses. The UKFSA's advice on heating food, while not ideal, IS realistic for the target audience. Better than a poke in the eye with a pointed stick as they say.

Posted on June 7th, 2010 - 6:06pm

Anonymous says:

Karl - you keep commenting on this but you're wrong. If you don't like the way DP tells it then go and read another blog. But you can't criticise the substance. 1. The FSA's own expert committee has been telling them for two decades that cooked colour is a lousy indicator of cooking. Read the reports. Why does a 'science based' agency keep ignoring them? 2. How do you know that punters (some of whom are supposed to be professional caterers) can't hack it? The FSA has never tried. My kids were using a tip sensitive thermometer on the BBQ at aged 11 and still do so 20 years later. 3. If we can't check cooking temperature how are we supposed to check the fridge temperature to an accuracy of a couple of degrees? The FSA has got plenty heavy on that topic over the years. 4. You say it's working fine? The HPA published 2009 stats just last month. Outbreaks higher than any year since 2001. Most common cause of problems? Undercooking in food service outlets. The answer has to be that, sure the FSA can continue to provide 'steaming hot' advice for the poor souls who can't handle anything more complicated. But the FSA must also try to move things forward with empirical advice for cooks, amateur and professional, who want to take their responsibilities more seriously.

Posted on July 7th, 2010 - 2:05pm

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