Food Safety

Cooking and health

Food safety

Chicken with lemons on a large wooden cutting board.

Ddeokbokki is a Korean dish consisting ofsautéed rice cakes with vegetables and pork.

A cook sautees onions and green peppers on askillet

When heat is used in the preparation of food, it can kill or inactivate potentially harmful organisms, such as bacteria and viruses, as well as various parasites such as tapeworms and Toxoplasma gondii. Food poisoning and other illness from uncooked or poorly-prepared food may be caused by bacteria such aspathogenic strains of Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium and Campylobacter, viruses such asnoroviruses, and protozoa such as Entamoeba histolytica. Parasites may be introduced through salad, meat that is uncooked or done rare, and unboiled water.

The sterilizing effect of cooking will depend on temperature, cooking time, and technique used. However, some bacteria such as Clostridium botulinum or Bacillus cereus, can form spores that survive cooking, which then germinate and regrow after the food has cooled. It is therefore recommended that cooked food should not be reheated more than once to avoid repeated growths that allow the bacteria to proliferate to dangerous level.^[8]

Cooking prevents many foodborne illnesses that would otherwise occur if the raw food was eaten. Cooking also increases the digestibility of some foods such as grains. Many foods, when raw, are inedible, and some are poisonous. For example kidney beans are toxic when raw or improperly cooked, due to the presence ofphytohaemagglutinin which can be inactivated after cooking for at least ten minutes at 100°C.^[9] Slow cooker however may not reach the desired temperature and cases of poisoning from red beans cooked in slow cooker have been reported.

Preparation and storage of food are other considerations in food safety. The temperature range from 41 °F to 135 °F (5 °C to 57 °C) is the "Danger zone" where bacteria is likely to proliferate, food therefore should not be stored in this temperature range. Food prepared on plastic cutting boards may be less likely to harbor bacteria than wooden ones,^[10]other research however suggested otherwise.^[11]Washing and sanitizing cutting boards is highly recommended, especially after use with raw meat, poultry, or seafood. Hot water and soap followed by a rinse with an diluted antibacterial cleaner, or a trip through a dishwasher with a "sanitize" cycle, are effective methods for reducing the risk of illness due to contaminated cooking implements.^[11]