Top Food Safety Tip: Cook It!

By Dr. Madelyn Fernstrom

You might have heard about the recent recall of raw ground turkey from supermarket shelves. Salmonella (a type of bacteria causing food-borne illness) was found during routine testing, with a quick removal from stores. Food contamination does seem to occur more often in ground meats (including poultry, beef, pork, and lamb), and with good reason. It’s not just the uncooked meat that can be affected, but the meat grinders can be loaded with bacteria, easily passed along to the meat.

So, what to do? You don’t have to give up eating your favorite burger, but it’s a good idea to rethink how you’re cooking it. While you don’t need to cook your meat until it’s the texture of shoe-leather, it’s important to follow national guidelines to optimize food safety.

Cooking ground meats kills bacteria, including salmonella, but temperature matters. Skip the visual testing, as in “it looks done to me”, and use an instant food thermometer. Instant is the key word – as this type of thermometer registers the temperature in real time. It is definitely a worthwhile purchase that you can use for a variety of cooked foods.

Cook ground meat (beef, pork, veal, lamb) to an internal temperature of 160 degrees. And ground poultry (turkey, chicken) to 165 degrees. This is the temperature that studies show kill bacteria - definitely limiting your risk of food-borne illness.

And one last tip. to further avoid food-borne illness, make sure to refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours (within 1 hour if you’re outside and the outdoor temperature is approaching 90).

Simple preventive measures like these can go a long way when it comes to food safety!

What other tips do you have?