cooking temperature
Food safety risks associated with brain parasites such as brain worms (here & here), cancer-causing viruses, hepatitis E, and superbugs such as MRSA can be mediated with proper cooking though there are some bugs such as Salmonella and C. diff that are relatively heat-resistant (and there’s always a concern about cross-contamination). Even with thorough cooking, though, rare neurotoxins, more common toxins, and biogenic amines in seafood as well as prions and drug residues cannot be effectively cooked out of the meat. While it is often safest to cook meat properly, certain carcinogens are actually created when muscle is cooked.
Topic summary contributed by Peter Huntley.
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Watch videos about cooking temperature
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Amnesic Seafood PoisoningThere's a rare toxin called domoic acid that can turn up in tuna and other seafood and cause anterograde amnesia, the loss of short-term memory popularized in the movie Memento.
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Poultry and Penis CancerThe largest study to date on poultry workers found a significantly increased risk of dying from penile cancer, thought to be due to exposure to oncogenic (cancer-causing) chicken viruses, which raise..
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Chicken Dioxins, Viruses, or Antibiotics?The association between poultry and cancer may be explained by the presence in chickens' and turkeys' flesh of industrial carcinogens such as dioxins, oncogenic (cancer-causing) viruses, and/or the..
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Total RecallSalmonella, the leading cause of food-poisoning related death, can survive most common egg cooking methods including scrambled, over-easy, and sunny-side-up. Cross-contamination onto fingers,..
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Drug Residues in MeatThe U.S. Inspector General cites the USDA for failing to safeguard the meat supply from drug residues.
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Toxic Megacolon SuperbugClostridium difficile is another "superbug" found in the U.S. meat supply.
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Hepatitis E Virus in PorkThe discovery of infectious hepatitis E virus in retail pork products may help explain the purported association between liver failure and pork consumption.
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Deep Frying ToxinsVolatile toxins created by deep frying may pose a respiratory risk.
