|
Professor Ralph Judd |
"These bacteria have been out there forever,"
he says. "Fowl are commonly infected with bacteria. Proper cooking and handling will
kill everything."
-- Ralph Judd |
|
|
News to Use
UM professor
talks turkey
This time of year when people start talking turkey, stuffing, gravy and other holiday
delights, words like Salmonella typhimurium, Campy-lobacter jejuni and Clostridium
perfringens seldom enter the conversation. But those unsavory little critters are present
en masse in these and other foods, and if folks don't treat them right - that is, put them
out of commission - they can make their presence known later in unpleasant ways. Diarrhea,
nausea and cramps, usually. Stopping these organisms in their tracks, though, is pretty
simple, according to Ralph Judd, a bacterial pathogenicist and biological sciences
professor at UM. An experienced home cook himself and the one in his family who prepares
the Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys, Judd says all food bacteria problems are solved by
proper hygiene, cooking and storage after cooking. He has a few simple rules:
"Keep raw food away from cooked food, use hard - not wooden - cutting boards, and
wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands. There's no better way to protect
yourself from disease."
Just for the record, Judd routinely gives his kitchen counters a chlorine bleach bath
once a month. "I just pour the stuff on the counter straight and wipe it around with
a paper towel," he says. "My wife hates it because she can't stand the smell,
but nothing survives chlorine bleach." Detergents are effective, too, he says, and
it's important to wash cutting boards and cutting utensils in hot, sudsy water.
"Don't serve raw turkey." Cook the bird in a 325-350 degree oven until a
thermometer in the thigh registers 180 degrees. At that temperature, all the harmful
bacteria are dead. Judd warns against the time-honored practice of cooking the bird in a
really slow oven for a long period of time: The longer it takes for the oven to heat the
meat to 180 degrees, the more time the bacteria have to multiply.
"Salmonella is the big player in turkey," he says. "Campylobacter also
is found in turkeys and chickens, but salmonella is better at multiplying and causing
problems." Judd says 20,000 to 30,000 cases of salmonella-caused illness occur in the
United States each year. The severity and duration of the illness depend upon the number
of organisms ingested, he says.
Once dinner is over, put food back into the refrigerator as soon as possible. Be
especially vigilant with the gravy.
"Gravy is a big problem because it has clostridium spores," Judd says. He
explains how the Clostridium perfringens bacteria can change into spores when temperatures
get too hot for the bacteria. That transformation spells trouble.
"Cooking may not kill these spores," he says. "So when the gravy cools
down to below 150 degrees, the spores can turn back into bacteria, and they grow like
crazy. If you let gravy sit for three hours between 40 degrees and 150 degrees, these
bacteria are going, 'This is heaven.'"
To folks concerned about cooking the dressing inside the bird rather than on the side,
Judd says not to worry.
"If the bird is cooked until the thermometer in the thigh registers 180 degrees,
the stuffing should be fine provided it registers a minimum of 165 degrees," he says.
"Remove the stuffing from the turkey right away and keep it hot in the oven until
dinner is ready."
In short, Judd says, "don't sweat" the food scares rampant in typical turkey
talk.
"These bacteria have been out there forever," he says. "Fowl are
commonly infected with bacteria. Proper cooking and handling will kill everything."
-- Terry Brenner
|
