health officials, meat inspectors and even food scientists. Ground beef patties from a fast-food

restaurant, cooked to the usual stage of medium, made dozens of people sick. Scientists quickly

traced the outbreak to a strain of the common and generally benign bacteria, Escherichia coli (E.

coli for short). This bacteria occurs in soil, on plants, in water and on all herd animals, and it has

rarely been a problem in food safety. A relatively new strain, however (called O157:H7), that

scientists knew back in 1975, can harbor a virus which produces one of the most potent toxins

(called cytotoxins since it poisons our cells) known to humankind. The Seattle hamburgers

contained this new strains of E. coli. This tough strain can even survive freezing temperatures.

Heating the meat to 160°F (72°C) is the only safe way to destroy it. Not only is the toxin highly

potent but people who ate contaminated meat can pass it on to others by touch. Two of the four

children who died from that outbreak in Seattle hadn't even eaten the contaminated hamburgers

but caught it from others who had.

Since the Seattle outbreak, cleanliness is even more strictly enforced in slaughterhouses

and meat processing facilities. In fact, a federal inspection agency introduced a zero-

contamination standard which guarantees at least hospital-level conditions in meat packing

plants. This is comforting to us, yet we still need a new level of safety in our kitchens, too.

Preventing E. coli

Is there any alternative to a well-done meat to avoid E. coli toxin? No one has come up

with an answer yet. To be absolutely safe, restaurants now bring the internal temperature,

measured in the center of the meat with a reliable thermometer, to 160°F (72°C). The problem is

that meat starts to dry out before it gets to that temperature. At home you can cook the meat until

the internal temperature reaches 155°F (69°C) and still be safe, but food safety experts also

consider the meat perfectly safe by holding it at 145°F (63°C) for at least four minutes. At this

lower temperature the meat is still medium-done, reasonably juicy and tender.

Remember, too, that ground meat is particularly susceptible because of its large total

surface area. Ground meat also goes through several extra processing steps, each one offering

another chance for contamination from machinery or workers' hands. A whole piece of meat runs

much less risk of contamination. If it came from a healthy animal and there are no gashes

through which bacteria can enter, the inside of a chunk of meat is sterile. It doesn't matter if there

is contamination on the outside because any cooking method is hot enough to destroy those

surface microorganisms.

But you can have safe hamburger cooked to medium rare. Choose a large cut of meat and

drop it into boiling water for 10 seconds to sterilize the surface, then grind it in a clean meat

grinder or food processor. Your hamburger will be free of contamination and safe to eat no

matter how rare you like it.

What about pork? Pigs are considered filthy creatures, but that reputation is only skin

deep. Besides bacteria, pork can carry trichinosis, a parasite that you catch if you eat improperly

cooked pork. Trichinosis used to be very common in pork but not so any more thanks to far

better western animal husbandry. Even though it is very uncommon (incidence is less than 0.1

percent in the U.S. according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is one pig in a 1000),

to guard yourself and your dinner guests against it, you need only raise the internal temperature

of any piece of pork to 137°F (58°C).

Common knowledge of trichinosis is widespread, and most people know not to serve

pork rare or even medium rare. In fact, many cooks are so afraid of the infection that they

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