Cooking chicken at home: Common or recommended approaches to judge doneness may not assure sufficient inactivation of pathogens

Abstract

About one third of foodborne illness outbreaks in Europe are acquired in the home and eating undercooked poultry is among consumption practices associated with illness. The aim of this study was to investigate whether actual and recommended practices for monitoring chicken doneness are safe. Seventy-five European households from five European countries were interviewed and videoed while cooking chicken in their private kitchens, including young single men, families with infants/in pregnancy and elderly over seventy years. A cross-national web-survey collected cooking practices for chicken from 3969 households. In a laboratory kitchen, chicken breast fillets were injected with cocktails of Salmonella and Campylobacter and cooked to core temperatures between 55 and 70˚C. Microbial survival in the core and surface of the meat were determined. In a parallel experiment, core colour, colour of juice and texture were recorded. Finally, a range of cooking thermometers from the consumer market were evaluated. The field study identified nine practical approaches for deciding if the chicken was properly cooked. Among these, checking the colour of the meat was commonly used and perceived as a way of mitigating risks among the consumers. Meanwhile, chicken was perceived as hedonically vulnerable to long cooking time. The quantitative survey revealed that households prevalently check cooking status from the inside colour (49.6%) and/or inside texture (39.2%) of the meat. Young men rely more often on the outside colour of the meat (34.7%) and less often on the juices (16.5%) than the elderly (>65 years old; 25.8% and 24.6%, respectively). The lab study showed that colour change of chicken meat happened below 60˚C, corresponding to less than 3 log reduction of Salmonella and Campylobacter. At a core temperature of 70˚C, pathogens survived on the fillet surface not in contact with the frying pan. No correlation between meat texture and microbial inactivation was found. A minority of respondents used a food thermometer, and a challenge with cooking thermometers for home use was long response time. In conclusion, the recommendations from the authorities on monitoring doneness of chicken and current

Effect of Combination of Time and Temperature on Quality Characteristics of Sous Vide Chicken Breast

“…This might be attributed to myoglobin pigment concentration, which is presumed to be higher in the two-step sous vide-treated samples because its denaturation starts between 55 and 65 °C [ 53 ]. The pink color in poultry meat has been shown to be the first indicator that consumers check for a properly cooked product [ 57 ]. The degree of the pink color on chicken breast can be evaluated using a subjective pink threshold of a* = 3.8 [ 58 ].…”

Salmonella in eggs: From shopping to consumption—A review providing an evidence‐based analysis of risk factors

“…**Results of a household online survey conducted between December 2018 and April 2019 in 10 countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom (Langsrud et al., 2020; Møretrø et al., 2020). …”

“…Moreover, we are not aware of studies that have evaluated the performance of thermometers to monitor egg doneness. When such studies were conducted for meat products, it was concluded that some thermometers were not accurate and presented a slow response time (Langsrud et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2009). Moreover, Langsrud et al.…”

“…Moreover, Langsrud et al. (2020) also demonstrated that when frying chicken, the recommended use of food thermometers to measure the core temperature may not be as safe as believed, as bacteria may still survive on the surface when the core reaches “safe” temperatures.…”

Detecting cooking state of grilled chicken by electronic nose and computer vision techniques

“…Chicken meat represented about 37 % of global meat production in 2018 (FAO, 2018). Chicken is characterized by its pleasant odors and can be prepared using several cooking methods, which are primarily concerned with its safety, especially in the case of grilling (Hassan, Magda, & Awad, 2010;Langsrud et al, 2020). During this process, chicken is subjected to high temperature, e.g., by burning charcoal for a certain time, depending on the desired characteristics of the final product.…”