In the review of nearly 1500 popular recipes, the researchers found that only 123 recipes, accounting for about 8%, mentioned cooking meat to a specific temperature.
"Recipes tell people how to cook," but the researchers wondered, "Do they tell people that the way they cook may affect the risk of food-borne diseases?" Ben Chapman, a professor of food safety at North Carolina State University and a senior author of the study, said in a statement. [7 bacteria in food that make you sick]
Previous studies have shown that as many as 3.5 million food-borne diseases in the United States are caused by improper cooking of meat or other animal proteins. The study was published in the British Food Journal on March 7th/KLOC-0. The researchers reviewed the recipes on the bestseller list from September 20th13 to June 20th14. They studied the recipes for cooking meat, poultry, seafood and eggs, looking for several factors affecting food safety, including the recommended internal temperature of meat. They also pay attention to common "food safety myths" when reading recipes-for example, it is suggested that you should wash raw chicken in the sink (you shouldn't).
They found that some recipes suggested that the internal temperature of meat was incorrect: of the 123 recipes that mentioned temperature, 34 recipes (or about 28 recipes (percentage)) suggested that meat should be cooked to a low temperature to kill bacteria or parasites. The researchers found that 27 recipes (about 22%) do not recommend chefs to use meat thermometers.
For example, some chicken recipes instruct home cooks to cook chicken to 160 degrees Fahrenheit (7 1. 1 degree Celsius) instead of 165 degrees Fahrenheit (73.9 degrees Celsius), which is recommended by food safety experts. In some cases, the recipe says that after the chicken is taken out from the high temperature, the internal temperature of the chicken will continue to rise; However, the researchers write that there is no research to support this.
According to research, pork recipes are likely to include a specific temperature for cooking meat. The researchers found that the recipe of ground beef was the least likely to include the internal temperature. On the contrary, these recipes often tell readers to evaluate the maturity of beef by observing the color of meat or its juice.
Although egg recipes contain the correct temperature, studies have found that they rarely tell readers to use thermometers.
Other indicators, although almost every recipe in the study contains instructions for using certain indicators to determine whether animal protein has been thoroughly cooked, researchers have found that in many cases, these indicators are not supported by scientific research. For example, according to this study, the most common indicator is cooking time. But the cooking time may be "particularly unreliable, because there are so many factors that affect the cooking time: the size of the cooked food, the temperature before entering the furnace, the difference of cooking equipment and so on." Katrina Levin, the lead author of the study and a researcher in agriculture and humanities at North Carolina State University, said in a statement. On the other hand,
The internal cooking temperature is "based on extensive research, aiming at the most likely bacteria found in each food," Levin said.
In some cases, the recipe contains two contradictory suggestions, for example, "Cook the turkey for 3 hours or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit.