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Good For You

By Barbara Burke

Wednesday, July 12, 2000

Food safety hot
summer concern

Paying attention to food safety is especially important during the summer months. Disease-causing bacteria flourish under hot, humid conditions. Summer is the most popular season for picnics and barbecues. But outdoor cooking typically does not offer the food safety features, like refrigeration and thermostat-controlled cooking, that a conventional kitchen provides.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently launched a campaign to promote use of food thermometers by consumers. The campaign features Thermy, a cartoon thermometer, and the slogan, "It's Safe to Bite When the Temperature is Right."

"Consumers should use a food thermometer when cooking meat, poultry, and egg dishes," said Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. "Using a food thermometer is the best way to ensure that food has reached a temperature high enough to destroy harmful bacteria."

Most people think they know when food is done, by trusting their experience or by judging the color of meat. But this can be misleading. One out of four hamburgers turns brown in the middle before it reaches a safe internal temperature, USDA research revealed. Yet, only three percent of consumers checked hamburgers with a food thermometer, according to a survey conducted jointly by the Food and Drug Administration and USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Most food thermometers will give an accurate reading within 2 to 4 degrees F. The reading will only be correct, however, if the thermometer is placed properly in the food, in general, the thickest part of the food, away from bone, fat, or gristle.

Follow the manufacturer's directions for the most accurate temperature reading.

Today's technologies make it easy to check the temperature of thin foods,like hamburgers or chicken fillets. Digital thermometers are designed to be used toward the end of the cooking time and register a temperature in about 10 seconds. Digital types must penetrate about a half inch into the food. If a ground beef patty is not thick enough to check from the top, or if an instant-read thermometer is used, insert the the thermometer sideways.

Digital food thermometers are available locally at the Compleat Kitchen and Executive Chef, for about $25 to $30. Use a food thermometer and these USDA guidelines for safe grilling of meat and poultry:

Cook hamburger and other ground meats (veal, lamb, and pork) to an internal temperature of 160 degrees and ground poultry to 165 degrees.
Cook steaks and roasts that have been tenderized, boned, rolled, etc., to an internal temperature of 160 degrees for medium, 170 degrees for well-done. Whole steaks and roasts may be cooked to 145 degrees for medium rare.
Whole poultry should be cooked to 180 degrees in the thigh. Breast meat should be cooked to 170 degrees.
Cook meat and poultry completely at the picnic site. Partial cooking of foods ahead of time allows bacteria to survive and multiply to the point that subsequent cooking may not destroy them.
Don't put the cooked items on the same platter that held the raw meat. Bacteria in the raw meat juices could contaminate the cooked foods.
Generally, food left out of refrigeration for more than 2 hours may not be safe to eat. During hot weather, food should not be left out over one hour. Play it safe. Put leftover perishables back on ice once you finish eating. If you have any doubt about a food's safety, throw it out.

For more information about food thermometers, visit the Web site www.fsis.usda.gov/oa/thermy/ktherms.htm

Health Events

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Barbara Burke is a Hawaii-Pacific University instructor
who has been teaching and writing about food
and nutrition since 1975.

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