Why do cookbook authors forget about product safety?

It turns out that cookbooks ignore one very important point: food safety.

As found in a recent study, most of the recipes that can be found in popular cookbooks do not provide any useful information on how not to get food poisoning. On the contrary, they mislead readers and recommend doing things that can contribute to the spread of bacteria.

The sad results of the study

In the course of the study, more than 1,500 recipes from popular cookbooks were examined, and only 123 of them, that is, approximately eight percent of cases, indicated that meat should be cooked at a certain temperature. Cookbooks teach people how to cook, but scientists have wondered if they teach people how to cook so that they do not get any foodborne illness in the process?

Previous research has shown that in the United States of America, about 3.5 million cases of foodborne illnesses have resulted from improper cooking of meat or any other protein products of animal origin.

How did the study go?

In the last study, the scientists reviewed recipes from cookbooks that were on the bestseller list for at least five months. They studied the recipes for cooking meat, chicken, seafood and eggs, paying attention to the special factors that affect the safety of food, including the temperature of cooking meat.

They also paid attention to known myths about food safety, such as, for example, advice that you need to wash a raw chicken in a sink (you should not do this).

Incorrect cooking temperature

The researchers found that the temperature of cooking meat in most recipes was incorrect. Of the 123 recipes that mentioned the cooking temperature in general, 43 (or about 28 percent) recommended cooking meat at too low a temperature, which would not be enough to kill bacteria and parasites. And 27 (or 22 percent) did not mention the need to use a meat thermometer.

For example, some recipes for the preparation of chicken recommended to cook meat to a temperature of 71 degrees Celsius, and not to 74 degrees Celsius, namely, this temperature is recommended by experts in the field of nutrition. In some cases, the cookbook indicated that the temperature of the chicken will rise for some time after you stop preparing it, but there are no studies that confirm this statement.

Where can I find instructions on cooking temperature?

With the greatest likelihood instructions regarding the cooking temperature could be found in recipes for pork dishes. As for the least probability, practically no recipe for cooking ground beef mentioned any cooking temperature. In most cases, in these recipes, the authors suggested determining the readiness of the dish according to the color of the meat and the color of its juices. As for the recipes for egg preparation, they included the right temperature, but they almost never suggested that readers use thermometers for eating.

Other indicators

Although practically every recipe considered in the study used certain indications concerning the determination of the degree of readiness of meat or other animal protein, none of these indications is scientifically proven. For example, the most often used indicator of the preparedness of a dish is cooking time. However, cooking time can not be a reliable indicator, since a large number of factors affect the time during which the dishes are cooked, such as the size of the dish, the temperature of the product before cooking, the differences in kitchen utensils, and so on. The internal cooking temperature, on the contrary, is based on numerous studies, and it concentrates on bacteria and parasites that can be found in a particular product. In some cases, recipes could even contain two different recommendations that contradicted each other. For example, "cook the turkey for three hours or until its temperature reaches 74 degrees Celsius." Other unreliable indicators include the color or texture of the meat, the cooking instruction "until it boils," and in some cases words invented by the author that have nothing to do with cooking are used to determine the readiness of the products.

Prevention of cross contamination

A very small number of recipes included recommendations for preventing cross contamination, which occurs when bacteria from one product fall on another. For example, in only 29 recipes, it was indicated that separate clean cutting boards and utensils for raw and finished products should be used. And only in 12 recipes was recommended to wash hands after contact with a raw protein product of animal origin. Some recipes recommended readers to wash a raw chicken under the tap - this is a method that allows you not to wash off bacteria, but spread them to more surfaces. This is due to the fact that water can be sprayed all over the sink, as well as to be outside it, spreading microbes throughout the kitchen.