Tag Archives: Meat

U.S. official says meat supply safest in world; 25 react by barfing

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Dr. Richard Raymond, the Agriculture Department’s undersecretary of food
Safety, said on CBS’s ""The Early Show” this morning that,

"I think the American meat supply is the safest in the world. A recall like this does  show that we are on the job, we are doing our inspections, our investigation, and we respond when we find problems to make sure that  supply is safe.”

Raymond joins the Brits, Canadians and Kiwis, who all apparently have the safest food supply in the world.

They can’t all be right.

Meanwhile, an Associated Press story notes cited a Topps official as saying over the weekend that the company has now augmented its procedures with microbiologists and food-safety experts.

I’m sure all this is a tremendous relief to the at least 25 individuals who have been barfing with E. coli O157:H7 in eight states.

Don’t eat poop … and if you’re going to, cook it

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Steve Gustafson, program manager for a California county’s Division of Environmental Health, shared some frank words wth the Eureka Reporter about poop:

"Most people like their beef and steaks undercooked. It’s a delicacy. For a whole cut, that may be OK. But, ground meat — beef or poultry — is suspect because it’s been handled. It could have bacteria and must be cooked to safe temperatures to kill the bugs and waste produce. … Eating cooked feces can’t hurt you. That’s our joke and it’s true."

Don’t eat poop. Either keep it out or cook it.

Jittering jingoism

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First it was the Brits, now the Kiwis are jumping into the jingoism wars.

AgResearch New Zealand senior microbiologist Guill le Roux was quoted as telling the Waikato Times, "Eat it (meat) and enjoy it; we have the safest meat in the world. But for goodness sake, prepare and cook it properly."

le Roux was further quoted as saying,

"In general, we are better than most other places in the world. In the States, for instance, they use largely untrained Mexican labour, so there’s a language problem for a start. They have about 80 per cent staff turnover annually. And they work with very dirty animals, which are kept on feed lots where there’s mud and manure, which increases the possibility of disease. … We are lucky here, there is very little risk, even in hamburgers which are notorious overseas. But we can’t get complacent, because the goal posts are moving all the time especially in export markets."

The story notes that le Roux gained a certain profile a few years ago when he was reported as saying that New Zealand had the worst incidence of campylobacter in the world, adding, "We were at a conference and everyone else was saying the same thing, but the media focused on me."

He is quick to point out the statement needs clarification. "These bacteria can be found in water and in many food products such as chicken, fruit and vegetables. However, the high reported incidence in New Zealand is probably due to our good reporting systems as much as anything else."

Any country that claims to have the safest food in the world is probably wrong. Only one can be correct. Some data would bolster a claim of safety.

All we are saying …

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… is give LOX a chance.

That’s low oxygen meat packaging, a system which preserves the quality, bolsters the safety, maintains the color and extends the shelf life of fresh meat products.

Dr. Randy Huffman, vice president of scientific affairs for the American Meat Institute Foundation (AMIF), writes to South Dakota’s Yankton Daily to explain the technology and outline how the opposing PR campaign is funded by a company that stands to lose with the adoption of LOX. It’s a familiar tale, especially in the world of genetic engineering and natural-organics-local.

"Kalsec, a Michigan-based company that makes a competing technology using a chemical extracted from rosemary, stands to lose market share if LOX continues to gain momentum. As a result, they’ve launched a media campaign that made its way into this paper recently to alarm consumers and attempt to deep-six LOX altogether. In fact, according to a recent Federal Election Commission report, they’ve spent more than $300,000 in the last six months alone on lobbyists who have succeeded in convincing certain congressmen and senators from Michigan to sponsor bills attacking LOX. And if this beneficial technology is outlawed, the biggest loser of all will be the consumer."

Top Chefs… Stick it in

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Last night on Bravo’s Top Chef, Micah got eliminated for her bad-tasting but healthy meatloaf. Last week, Micah caught my attention as she used a meat thermometer in the barbeque elimination challenge. She came in the top three for her perfectly grilled lamb chops.

This is the same show that has had openly sick (or at least nauseated) chefs cooking anyway because they didn’t want to be kicked out of the competition (they wouldn’t get work in Michigan, where the state has proposed that someone with vomiting, diarrhea or a sore throat with fever could not return until 24 hours after the symptoms are gone).

And last night when the oven wasn’t working and Cheftestant Sara M’s chicken didn’t get done, she handpicked and served the pieces that looked cooked… no meat thermometer in sight, at least to the viewers.

Although Micah’s gone now, hats off to her.  Often depressed and crying, missing her daughter, Micah still had the presence of mind to stick in the meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of her barbecued meat. Whether she did it for accuracy or safety, Micah’s choice to use a thermometer stood out. How often do you see one on a TV cooking show? Perhaps the climate on the reality cooking circuit will change.

In 2004, Doug’s laboratory reported that, based on 60 hours of detailed viewing of television cooking shows, an unsafe food handling practice occurred about every four minutes, and that for every safe food handling practice observed, they observed 13 unsafe practices. The most common errors were inadequate hand washing and cross-contamination between raw and ready-to-eat foods.

Hey, reality cooking show producers: serve up another helping of food safety.

Washing my meat thermometer – part II

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Not quite satisfied with my inability to get a quick answer to my meat thermometer quandary, I did a Google search on “Food Safety Question.”  “Ask Karen” popped up as the first hit.  She’s the FSIS virtual representative for USDA.  I typed in my question, “Do I need to wash my digital meat thermometer or is this bad for the mechanism?”  This is what Karen said:

Thermometers are devices that measure temperatures. Using a food thermometer is the only reliable way to ensure the safety of meat, poultry and egg products. To be safe, these foods must be cooked to an internal temperature high enought [sic] to destroy any harmful microorganisms that may be in the food.

    * Are food thermometers best for large cuts of meat?
    * Can oven-safe bimetallic coil thermometers be used in the oven?
    * How accurate do thermometers need to be?
    * How many people use a food thermometer?
    * How to use a food thermometer?
    * Can I use a people thermometer for meat and poultry?
    * What are deep fry thermometers?
    * What is a bimetallic coil thermometer?
    * What is a liquid-filled thermometer?
    * What is a pop up timer?
    * What is a refrigerator thermometer?
    * What is a T-Stick?
    * What is a thermistor thermometer?
    * What is a thermocouple thermometer?
    * What is a thermometer fork?
    * What is an instant-read thermometer?
    * What is an oven cord thermometer?
    * What is an oven thermometer?
    * What is the proper way to clean a food thermometer?
    * What percentage of Americans own food thermometers?
    * What types of kitchen thermometers are available?
    * Where can I buy a food thermometer?
    * Why is it so important that people use a food thermometer when cooking meat, poultry, and eggs?

If I were anyone else, I would have given up with this huge list of questions.  But being the inquisitive (stubborn) nerd that I am, I searched through and clicked on “What is the proper way to clean a food thermometer?”  Karen says, “As with any cooking utensil, food thermometers should be washed with hot soapy water. Most thermometers should not be immersed in water. Wash carefully by hand.”

Karen’s advice sounds … sound.  But it isn’t really practical if I’m cooking two things on the grill at once.  Will the internal temperatures get hot enough to kill the microbes on the metal if I probe another piece of meat?  I’m certainly no scientist, but I wonder what the real cross-contamination risks are.  I also wondered if another source would give me a different answer. 

Next I Googled, “Wash meat thermometer” (in quotes) and I got exactly one result– a document entitled “FY 2001 Annual Report of Accomplishments and Results: Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service.” This report, comprised of many project overviews, provided one on “Quick & Easy Cooking Schools.”  In this project pilot cooking schools were offered in two Oklahoma counties, one of which had a 159% higher rate of foodborne illness than the rest of the state and this was 219% higher than the rest of the U.S. Using a 70 page Quick & Easy Cooking School curriculum, thirty cooking schools were taught in 2000.  As a result, the worst county (Washita) dropped from 159% above the state rate to 100% below the state rate for foodborne illnesses.  Here are some other “anecdotal” results:

“In addition, there was an increase in the number who used a meat thermometer after attending the cooking school.  Moreover, the following are samples of additional food safety comments from participants regarding what they learned:  ‘Wash meat thermometer in-between insertions.  Do not just rinse the grilling tray that held raw meat but wash it before putting cooked meat back on it.  Do not thaw meat on the counter.’”
 
My friends at iFSN also found the following references for me:

From the Beef Information Centre “Thermometer Know-How” states, “Always use hot soapy water to wash the tongs, plate and thermometer stem used in checking partially cooked meats before using again.”

From the food safety network’s own page, Cooking Temperatures  06.jul.05, “Wash the thermometer stem in hot soapy water every time you use it.” 

The explanation that finally cured my curiosity was this one from O. Peter Snyder Jr.  His study, “FOODBORNE ILLNESS HAZARD CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR CHURCHES AND NON-REGULATED GROUP FEEDING SITUATIONS” in 1992 for the Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management (May 1998 edition) explains that while cooking large pieces of meat, “Do not roast meats, etc. on a spit or stick the meat with a fork, because it will unnecessarily contaminate the center of the food. Always wash the stem of a thermometer before putting it into cooked, ready-to-eat food.” 

Now on to investigating how many people use a fork when they grill.