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This article, written by Jeffrey M. Farber, of the University of Guelph, was originally published in The Conversation and is republished here with permission:
The Public Health Agency of Canada has announced a national outbreak of salmonellosis linked to frozen chicken strips.
Since 2017, several national outbreaks of Salmonella infections related to raw and frozen breaded chicken products have been recorded. And foodborne pathogens are responsible for about four million diseases each year in Canada, affecting one in eight Canadians.
Unsafe procedures for handling, refrigeration, cooking and cleaning / sanitizing at home contribute to a significant proportion of these infections.
In many cases, because people may believe that chicken nuggets are already cooked, they do not cook them or cook them in the microwave, which can lead to the survival of salmonella and therefore to the human disease.
It is important to adopt healthy eating behaviors to prevent you and your family from getting sick. In fact, safe handling in domestic kitchens is essential for the prevention of diseases caused by foodborne pathogens.
Magazines, cooking shows, online recipes and cookbooks are one of the ways to receive education and advice on food safety. That's why, as director of the Canadian Food Safety Research Institute, my team conducted a study to review the food safety information contained in several cookbooks. Canadian cuisine.
Out of an initial total of 30 cookbooks reviewed, 19 were included in the study because the recipes included a variety of meats and seafood, major contributors to foodborne illness.
Your burger is made of 71
In fact, about 10% of the recipes examined contained instructions for the preparation of dangerous foods – in the form of incorrect thawing and washing of meat in the domestic kitchen.
Only about eight percent of recipes mention the use of a food thermometer. In addition, most recipes (about 96%) indicated an incorrect temperature or lacked a minimum internal temperature for safe cooking.
You should never use color as an indicator of meat readiness. For example, when cooking ground beef, which has been at the origin of several outbreaks of E. Coli, the meat can brown well before reaching the recommended internal temperature of 71 ° C.
We usually use the slogan "Your burger is cooked at 71".
The instructions for pork preparation were the most likely to include dangerous instructions. And less than one percent of the recipes we consulted advised readers to wash their hands before starting the preparation of a meal or after touching raw foods.
How to handle food safely at home
Here are six of the most important safety measures that cookbooks should explain:
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Wash your hands before and after food preparation, especially when handling raw foods such as meat and fish.
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Use different plates and utensils for raw, cooked meats and fish.
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Check meat with a meat thermometer making sure that they reach an internal temperature of 71 ° C for burgers, 74 ° C for poultry pieces and 82 ° C for whole birds.
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Thaw foods in the refrigerator or in cold water pots, not on the counter.
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Do not leave food at room temperature for more than two hours.
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Do not wash raw meats, as this procedure only releases pathogens that would be eliminated with proper cooking.
Even an introductory page in each cookbook, containing these important practices in food safety, would be helpful.
Famous Chiefs Must Clean Up
From a risk communication perspective, I believe that Canadian cookbooks are not being used effectively to inform consumers of safe food handling and preparation techniques.
It is possible that cookbook authors omit information on food safety because they have received little training in this area. In such cases, it is important that cookbook authors contact food safety experts to make the information they contain useful and accurate.
Cooking shows could also better inform viewers about how to handle, cook and store food properly. Celebrity chefs have a great influence on the transmission of knowledge about food security. Yet a recent study of cooking has revealed many behaviors that can lead to cross-contamination of foods – such as adding food with your hands, touching your hair and licking your fingers.
You have a very important role to play in the safety of the food you consume. And domestic cooking is really the last line of defense before eating a food!
– Jeffrey M. Farber, Professor of Food Security at the University of Guelph
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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