Health Canada has finally – finally – made an explicit, evidence-based public statement about ensuring the safety of cooked food, with no piping hot or juices run clear nonsense:

“The only reliable way to ensure that your food has reached a safe internal cooking temperature is by using a digital food thermometer.”

I’d add tip-sensitive.

Despite many different types of food thermometers currently available on the Canadian market, digital ones are considered the most accurate because they provide instant and exact temperature readings.

While we often look for other signs that our food is cooked properly (for example, the color of the meat and its juices), these methods can’t accurately confirm that harmful bacteria have been eliminated from our foods. Bacteria, such as salmonella, E. coli and listeria, which can cause foodborne illness, can’t survive at certain high temperatures.