The International Food Safety Network has released a new Infosheet ("Avoid the runs around the holiday season") in time for the Christmas festivities. The PDF file can be downloaded by clicking the appropriate link at the IFSN site here:
Posted - 22/12/2007 : 17:13
I saw the news item about the biggest health risk is washing the turkey before cooking it because of the risk of splashing the germs about. Far better to just shove it in the oven and kill alll the bugs with the heat of cooking and make sure it is thoroughly cooked. No pink flesh and any juice running out should be clear.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk
Posted - 26/12/2007 : 10:53
We tried a turkey from Sainsbury's this year. It had a "pop-out" device which was claimed to show when the turkey was cooked sufficiently - a red plastic thing which popped out of the thigh of the bird (a good job my wife warned me about it, otherwise I would have thowt the bird had been shot with some kind of air rifle!).
When the thing popped the bird still didn't seem cooked enough and we ended up giving it another hour - and even then it was not cooked quite as much as we would like.
You are right Stanley that the important thing is cooking the bird, not whether it is washed or not. But I think the advice about not washing is because some folk would manage to spread the salmonella all over the kitchen.
There has been a surge in E. coli O157 infections from meat this last year in the USA. The US public are getting very agitated about the presence of this bug in their meat. But once again it comes down to cooking - if you cook the meat properly the E. coli will be dead and there will be no possibility of infection. But people seem to want to blame someone else instead of making sure they cook the food correctly. Some of the problem was shown to be caused by food manufacturers giving inadequate cooking instructions - especially for microwave cooking - but there is also the problem of cookery not being taught at school.
Posted - 26/12/2007 : 17:33
I blame a lot of this undercooking on the TV chefs who all seem to go for underdone meat. Personally I think a chicken is cooked when it falls off the bone, the TV chefs reckon this is sacrilege.... Phooey, it's called cooking and killing the bugs. Tastes better as well..... I cook all meat the same, until it falls to pieces when you cut it hot.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk
Avoid the runs around the holiday season
