Modernist-Cuisine-Vol.-1-Small

3
SIMPLIFYING FOOD SAFETY
WITH SCIENCE
T H E 10 PRIN CIP LES OF
Our Food Safety Philosophy
1.
All foods carry some risk of contamination and thus of
yield a 6.5D reduction in pathogens according to the
standards specified in the Extended and Simplified 6.5D
Salmonella Reduction Table. Searing or blanching will
accomplish this reduction. Because most contamination
originates externally, you can safely leave the interior of
intact muscle raw or cook it to any temperature you desire.
7. Fish and other seafood are safer if cooked to the standards
specified in the Extended and Simplified 6.5D
Salmonella Reduction Table, but in most cases following
those recommendations will leave them unacceptably
overcooked. As an alternative, fish can be served raw or
cooked at lower temperatures, which poses some risk.
Fish that are prone to infection with anisakid nematodes
can be frozen first (see Simplified Fish Freezing Recommendations,
page 194) to eliminate that (very small) risk.
8. Eggs served raw or cooked less than recommended in the
Extended and Simplified 6.5D Salmonella Reduction Table
carry some risk. Using pasteurized eggs is a better approach
than using raw or lightly cooked eggs (see page
4·78). Cooking with pasteurized eggs is easy, and they work
well in any recipe from mayonnaise to meringue.
9. Poultry is no different from other meats. You can serve it
safely if it’s cooked to the core temperatures and times in
the Extended and Simplified 6.5D Salmonella Reduction
Table. You can also use the Simplified Poultry table on
page 193 for time-and- temperature combinations specific
to chicken breasts and thighs.
10. The Simplified Dairy table on page 194 includes an
expanded set of time-and- temperature recommendations
for dairy pasteurization. The general dairy listings
and those for sweet or high-fat dairy products both follow
FDA specifications, but we suspect that temperatures in
the latter category may be unnecessarily high.
DISCLAIMER:
This book cannot and
does not substitute for
legal advice about food
regulations in the United
States as a whole or in any
U.S. legal jurisdiction. Nor
can we guarantee that
following the information
presented here will prevent
food borne illness.
Unfortunately, the many
variables associated with
food contamination make
eliminating all risk and
preventing all infections
virtually impossible. We
cannot accept responsibility
for either health or
legal problems that may
result from following the
advice presented here. If
you operate a commercial
establishment and serve
food to the public, consult
the rules and health
regulations in your area.
The FDA’s food safety rules are designed for
commercial establishments in the United States,
but what about home chefs or people in other
jurisdictions? Our analysis of FDA requirements
suggests that some simple modifications of the
agency’s code could yield food safety standards
that are easier to follow and more scientifically
sound. We formulated these simplified rules and
present them in the tables on the following pages.
On the opposite page, we summarize the philosophy
behind the tables. It is up to you to determine
whether our rules are appropriate for your own
kitchen (see disclaimer at left).
Our philosophy broadly follows FDA guidelines
with some exceptions. In a few cases, the simplified
standards do not meet the FDA Food Code
requirements, but in other cases, they are far more
conservative.
The Extended and Simplified 6.5D Salmonella
Reduction Table on page 193 shows the primary
time-and- temperature listings for these simplified
recommendations. For convenience, we list
temperatures in small increments and in both
Fahrenheit and Celsius. The highest temperatures,
with their brief corresponding times, apply mostly
to the blanching or searing of food exteriors.
We say that the table is “extended” as well as
simplified because the first portion of the table
extends the 6.5D reduction curve to temperatures
lower than 54.4 °C / 130 °F. Although these
parameters are below the threshold recommended
by the FDA, they are supported by published
scientific research.
The second portion of the table starts at 54.4 °C
/ 130 °F and follows the FDA table for roasts,
except at 70 °C / 158 °F and above, where it follows
the more logical 6.5D Salmonella reduction curve.
You can use multipliers to obtain cooking times
for different reduction levels from these figures. If
you are comfortable with a lower safety margin
and a reduction of 5D, for example, you can
multiply the recommended cooking times by
5/6.5, or 0.77. If you want the increased safety
margin of 7D, then multiply by 7/6.5, or 1.077. As
discussed above, many food safety authorities
think that pasteurization to the 4.5D level is
sufficient. That would reduce the cooking times
discussed here by about 30%. Our view is that
30% is a small enough difference that you might as
well cook to the 6.5D standard. Another way to
look at this is that, by cooking to 6.5D, you are
adding a safety factor in case there are errors in
your timing or temperature.
We provide two different sets of guidelines for
cooking poultry; each ensures a reasonable level of
safety. One approach is to simply cook it like any
other food according to the recommendations in
the Extended and Simplified 6.5D Salmonella
Reduction Table. A second approach is to follow
the thermal death curves Juneja published in 2007
for Salmonella in ground chicken breast and thighs
(see Poultry Breast and Thigh Curves, page 193).
At 55 °C / 131 °F, Juneja’s results call for a cooking
time of 39 min 31 s for chicken breast meat, which
is substantially less than the 1 h 31 min recommended
in our primary simplified table. At 60 °C /
140 °F, however, Juneja’s data calls for cooking
times substantially longer than those for a 6.5D
reduction.
In general, you are likely better off using the
recommendations in our primary table for most
temperatures; those who prefer the texture and
taste of poultry, particularly chicken breast,
cooked at low temperatures may want to select the
more accommodating range of the Simplified
Poultry table on page 193.
In our Simplified Dairy table (page 194), the
general dairy curve follows the standard LTLT
and HTST pasteurization times; intervening
points have been interpolated for your convenience.
The ice cream and sweet or high-fat dairy
recommendations are similar to those for general
dairy but encompass higher temperatures. The
table reflects standard practices for dairy pasteurization,
and, in most cases, abiding by these
standards is not onerous. You can extend these
parameters to lower temperatures if you deem it
necessary to enhance taste or texture.
Anisakid nematodes are a food safety threat
that occurs with inshore saltwater fish in areas
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
foodborne illness. The only way to have zero risk is not to
eat any food at all.
The goal of food safety rules is to manage risk in a sensible
way that accords with your preferences. As an example,
overcooking meat in the name of making it safe but
serving it with a raw salad that may be more risky than
raw meat is an inconsistent way to manage your risks.
The risks faced by susceptible people, including infants,
the elderly, and people with compromised immune
systems, are different from those faced by healthy people,
and you should adjust the tradeoffs accordingly.
Almost all food can be served raw, but raw food always
confers a higher risk of foodborne illness than cooked
food. A good supplier and good hygiene can help you
minimize that risk. Meat that you intend to serve raw must
be sourced from commercially licensed farms. Heating
raw fruit or vegetable salads to kill potential pathogens
would reduce the risk of infection but ruin the food;
either accept the risk or don’t eat the salad. Likewise,
eating raw filter-feeding mollusks such as oysters always
poses some risk of foodborne illness.
Most food is safest if you heat the core to a specific temperature
for an allotted length of time, as specified in the
Extended and Simplified 6.5D Salmonella Reduction
Table on page 193. This procedure is recommended for
most cooked food, including meat that is mechanically
tenderized without having had its surface pasteurized.
Apart from a few examples discussed below, this approach
produces good results in terms of food quality
and provides a solid margin of safety.
The surface of intact muscles from commercially raised
mammals (steaks or roasts) should be cooked enough to
Tuna and farmed fish are exempt from
the FDA rule requiring that all species of
fish that are susceptible to nematodes be
frozen before service.
190 VOLUME 1 · HISTORY AND FUNDAMENTALS
FOOD SAFETY 191