How to Cook Meat Safely

Enjoying a delicious barbecue or pot roast is great, but getting sick from food-borne bacteria can put a real damper on things. Spend a bit of time ensuring you cook meat safely and enjoy food without worrying about harmful bacteria.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Stove, oven, grill or microwave oven
• Raw meat

1. Refrigerate fresh meat within 2 hours of buying it. Meat left at room temperature for too long will spoil.
2. Plan to cook meat soon after you buy it. Whole pieces of beef, lamb or veal will stay fresh in a refrigerator for three to five days, but ground meat will only last two days.
3. Cook whole pieces of meat, like beef, veal, lamb steaks or chops, to at least 145 degrees F (medium rare) in order to kill surface bacteria. While medium rare is the minimum cooking requirement, you might prefer your meat medium (160 degrees F) or even well done (170 degrees F).
4. Make sure ground meat reaches a minimum of 160 degrees F. When meat is ground, surface bacteria can be spread throughout the meat so it is not safe to serve hamburgers or meat loaf underdone.
5. Use a meat thermometer to check if the cooking meat has reached a safe temperature. Be sure to insert the thermometer into the thickest part of the meat.
6. Keep cooked meat at 140 degrees F before you serve it and put it in the refrigerator within two hours.
7. Throw out refrigerated leftovers after four days.

Tips & Warnings

• Defrost frozen meat in the refrigerator for slow thawing. Boneless meat generally takes one day to defrost, while bone-in meat will take at least two days.
• For quicker defrosting, submerge meat in cold water in an airtight wrapping. A small package of meat will only take about an hour to defrost this way.
• Do not rely on the color of meat to decide if it's cooked. Meat can change from pink to brown before it has reached a safe temperature.
• Never eat meat that has been left out of the refrigerator for more than 2 hours.
• Never defrost meat at room temperature.