Tom Colicchio needs to stick it in

Top Chef host, producer and owner of the Craft series of restaurants Tom Colicchio talked to Anderson Cooper about food safety today on CNN. Tom gets some things right (temperature is really important for ground beef because of the surface area) but gets some stuff wrong (frozen burgers are worse than fresh because they are from big packers; go to a butcher for safe meat).

Regardless of source Tom, you need to stick it in. Measuring the temperature of your burger (160F, or 155F for 15 seconds) with a digitial tip-sensitive thermometer in multiple spots is the best risk-reduction practice.

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About Ben Chapman

Dr. Ben Chapman is a professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. As a teenager, a Saturday afternoon viewing of the classic cable movie, Outbreak, sparked his interest in pathogens and public health. With the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements, and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Through reality-based research, Chapman investigates behaviors and creates interventions aimed at amateur and professional food handlers, managers, and organizational decision-makers; the gate keepers of safe food. Ben co-hosts a biweekly podcast called Food Safety Talk and tries to further engage folks online through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and, maybe not surprisingly, Pinterest. Follow on Twitter @benjaminchapman.