How do we get away from celebrity chefs and ‘foodies’ extolling the virtues of unsafe food hygiene practices? Yesterday’s Metro had a whole page dedicated to pork, with the frustrating advice from Spanish chefs that ‘fresh pork is best not cooked through’. With all the work we are doing to try to improve food hygiene in businesses, and at home, to reduce food poisoning, this type of advice is unhelpful and potentially dangerous.
The fact is that, it doesn’t matter how ‘fresh’ it is, pork is best served thoroughly cooked – unless you want to run the risk of contracting hepatitis E or toxoplasmosis.
Although hepatitis E is a relatively uncommon disease in the UK in rare cases people have died after contracting the disease. In recent years we have seen infection rates increase in pigs and last thing we want would be for this increase to be transferred to the human population.
As for the parasitic disease toxoplasmosis, although it is more commonly associated with contact with contaminated cat faeces, the disease can also be transmitted through undercooked pork and can cause severe complications during pregnancy.
So a reminder of our advice:
When cooking burgers, sausages, chicken and pork, cut into the middle to check that the meat is no longer pink, that any juices run clear and it's steaming hot.
It’s safe to serve steak and other whole cuts of beef and lamb rare as long as they have been properly cooked on the outside to kill any bacteria on the surface of the meat.
While this advice might not be, to some, gastronomic perfection, surely it’s preferable to a nasty bout of food poisoning, or even worse.
(You may also be interested in the article the Metro published last year recommending that pork is cooked thoroughly!)