Modernist-Cuisine-Vol.-1-Small

3
FDA-Specified Cooking Times and Temperatures
Food
fish
farmed meat, including that from commercially
raised game animals
eggs broken and cooked to order
ratites (e.g., ostriches, emus, kiwis)
injected or marinated meats
eggs other than those cooked to order
ground or minced fish or meats, including
commercially raised game animals
poultry
baluts
wild game animals
stuffed meat, fish, poultry, pasta
stuffing containing meat, fish, poultry, or ratites
whole-meat roasts from:
pork
beef
corned beef
lamb
cured pork roasts such as ham
Temperature
(°C)
(°F)
Time
Note
63 145 15 s for raw eggs, see below
63 145 3 min for more complete cooking standards, see red
66 150 1 min
line on FDA Time-and- Temperature Curves,
page 187
68 155 15 s
70 158 <1 s
74 165 15 s
54.4 130 112 min for more complete cooking standards, see
55.0 131 89 min
blue line on FDA Time-and-Temperature
Curves, page 187. Time-and- temperature
56.1 133 56 min
combinations yield an approximate 6.5D
57.2 135 36 min
reduction for Salmonella. If meat is cooked in
an oven, that oven must meet certain
57.8 136 28 min
temperature standards (see FDA-Specified
58.9 138 18 min
Oven Temperatures for Roasting Whole-Meat
Roasts, page 186)
60.0 140 12 min
61.1 142 8 min
62.2 144 5 min
62.8 145 4 min
63.9 147 134 s
65.0 149 85 s
66.1 151 54 s
67.2 153 34 s
68.3 155 22 s
69.4 157 14 s
70.0 158 0 s
whole-muscle, intact beef steak 63 145 no time given surface brought to this temperature to achieve
“cooked color change”; no core temperature
required
any raw food of animal origin cooked or
reheated in a microwave oven
74 165 no time given
food reheated in other oven for hot holding 74 165 15 s
reheated ready-to-eat food taken from
hermetically sealed commercial container
57 135 no time given
plant foods (fruits and vegetables) for hot holding 57 135 no time given
fruit or vegetable juice packaged on-site
5D reduction of “most resistant microorganisms of public health significance”
FDA-Specified Cooking Times and Temperatures
milk pasteurization for making cheese 63 145 30 min or any point in the FDA dairy table (see FDA
72 162.1 15 s
Time-and- temperature Curves, pink line)
pasteurization of high-fat or sweet dairy foods
such as ice cream
the FDA version begins at 63 °C / 145 °F instead
of at 54.4 °C / 130 °F. The seemingly arbitrary
decision to start at a higher temperature is puzzling
because all points along the curve yield the
same 6.5D reduction and thus all provide the same
level of safety.
To make matters worse, this curve contains the
same apparent timing error at 70 °C / 158 °F that
bedevils the curve for whole-meat roasts, compounded
by an absence of intermediate data
points between 65 °C / 150 °F and 70 °C / 158 °F.
As we noted before, the final time point of less
than one second cannot be scientifically correct
for whole-meat roastsor for any other food.
Similarly puzzling is the single data point for
fish and for eggs cooked to order (green dot in
graph on page 187). At the specified cooking
temperature of 63 °C / 145 °F, the time requirement
of 15 seconds is dramatically less than the
240 seconds required for the same temperature
point in the FDA’s time-and- temperature table for
cooking meat. Instead of a 6.5D reduction in
Salmonella, 15 seconds of cooking time would
yield only a 0.41D reduction.
As discussed previously, many food safety
experts think that the 6.5D standard is excessive
and that 4.5D would be more reasonable, but
nobody is in favor of 0.41Dthat is simply
ineffective and useless. Even if it did accomplish
something, another question remains: why should
eggs cooked to order require such a slight D-value
reduction when the same eggs, if not cooked to
order, require a 6.5D pathogen reduction?
We asked the FDA, and they could not give us
an answer. Their rationale appears to be simple
pandering to common practices. If you order eggs
“sunny side up” with runny yolks, the typical
cooking temperature will be about 63 °C / 145 °F.
The FDA appears to have observed common
(continued)
89 191.2 1 s
96 204.5 0.05 s
100 212 0.01 s
69 155.6 30 min or any point in the FDA ice cream table (see
80 175.6 25 s
FDA Time-and- temperature Curves, orange
line)
practice then codified it, even though the practice
carries essentially no food safety benefit.
Recall that the FDA does allow you to serve raw
or lightly cooked eggsyou just need to warn
your customers in writing on the menu or elsewhere.
But the warning is not required if you
follow the 63 °C / 145 °F for 15 seconds rule. Why
make such an exception? We don’t know, but it
seems to make no scientific sense.
Of course if you are serious about the safety of
lightly cooked eggs, the right thing to do is use
pasteurized eggswhich can be bought commercially
or easily prepared.
For fish, one could argue that a pathogen other
than Salmonella is the primary target of the
time-and- temperature requirement. But the FDA
does not specify the hazard, and there are no
obvious candidates for a fish-specific pathogen that
would be adequately reduced by 15 seconds of
cooking. Many people, the authors included,
consider fish overcooked at 63 °C / 145 °F. So the
rule ensures that fish will be overcooked but not
necessarily safe.
In many ways, the fish requirement is and
example of food safety rules at their absolute
worst. The regulation accomplishes little to
nothing in terms of real food safety while grossly
harming quality. Because fish is cooked optimally
at very low temperatures (at least in our opinion),
you can’t pasteurize fish without overcooking it.
So when you serve fish, you must accept that it
isn’t pasteurized. This is a small risk that most
people consider acceptable. Following the FDA
regulations will overcook the fish but won’t make it
appreciably safer.
The fundamental conclusion to draw here is
that the time specified for fish and eggs cooked to
order is likely more of a symbolic requirement
than one driven by scientific verities. If the fish or
The fish and egg rule is meaningless
“make-work” regulation—it
achieves little but lets inspectors
and cooks feel as if something has
been done.
For more on pasteurizing eggs, see page 4·78.
Egg pasteurization is not covered
in the FDA Food Code, in part
because of a bureaucratic issue that
a raw pasteurized egg might be
considered a “food ready-to-eat”
and thus be within the purview of
the USDA rather than the FDA.
184 VOLUME 1 · HISTORY AND FUNDAMENTALS
FOOD SAFETY 185