Food-Safety Misconceptions Can Get You Into Trouble

It’s summer, the burgers are on the grill and because you’re savvy about food safety, you know that any bacteria they may harbor are destroyed when the juices run clear instead of pink, right?

Wrong. For one thing, juices never run clear; they run sort of yellowish. More important, changes in color, whether of the meat or the juices, never indicate doneness. The only way you can know for sure that the E. coli and other dangerous bacteria that often lurk in ground beef have been destroyed is by checking with a meat thermometer to make sure the temperature has reached 160 degrees.

Assuming that you can always go by color is just one of many common food-safety misconceptions. Here are some of the other myths, and the reality: Myth: You’re supposed to refrigerate all cooked foods within two hours of serving.

But since heating foods to a very high temperature kills bacteria, it’s OK to eat the leftover lasagna that had been sitting out for several hours as long as it’s steaming hot when it comes out of the microwave.

Reality: No way. Cooking kills bacteria, but it doesn’t kill the toxins that some bacteria produce. And the toxins can make you just as sick as the germs themselves. Even non-animal foods such as cooked pasta and rice can contain enough toxins to do damage if left out for too long. In other words, if you’ve let cooked food sit outside the fridge for more than two hours, throw it away.

Myth: You’ve made a deep-dish casserole for a potluck dinner and refrigerated it as soon as the meal was over, so you’re definitely safe from food-borne illness.

Reality: Definitely not. Putting a deep casserole dish or pot into the fridge is risky business. Even in the refrigerator, food in the center of a deep container may not cool fast enough to stop bacteria from multiplying. Divide the contents into shallow containers before refrigerating so they will cool down as quickly as possible and limit the growth of bacteria.

Myth: Foods should be cooled to room temperature before being placed in the refrigerator.

Reality: This advice may be handed down from the days of ice boxes, says Bessie Berry, manager of the Department of Agriculture’s Meat and Poultry Hotline (800) 535-4555). Before refrigerators, when people had to pay for ice, and when the ice man might not have come around too frequently, it was important to preserve ice blocks for as long as possible. But today’s refrigerators, Berry explains, are designed to cool foods efficiently without overworking the motor. Get cooked foods into the refrigerator as soon as possible.

Myth: You’re making fried chicken - your family’s summer favorite - but the area near the bone won’t turn from dark red to white, so you know it’s not ready.

Reality: Not necessarily. If you’ve got a young chicken (or parts from a young chicken), its bones are still porous, so the heating process can draw red pigment through them from the bone marrow and stain a bit of the flesh. It’s not harmful. The thing is, you don’t know what’s underdone chicken and what’s bone-marrow staining. Take a thermometer and make sure the chicken has been cooked to 180 degrees. (Breasts alone are safe at 170 degrees.)

Myth: The only way you can get botulism is by eating food from a bulging can.

Reality: Certainly a bulging can is a bad sign. The toxin that causes botulism can be created in an oxygen-free environment, namely a sealed, airtight can. If enough toxin is created, the can will bulge. But uncanned foods can cause botulism, too. Among them: peppers, asparagus, eggs, tomatoes, salmon, beets, pickles, garlic, onions, even potatoes. A baked potato left in foil at room temperature has proved to be the perfect medium for bringing on botulism, as have unrefrigerated garlic and onions that were kept in cooking oil. Keep those foods in the refrigerator and you’ll be fine.

Myth: Labels that say “smoked,” “vacuum-packed” or “cured” mean the food inside does not have to be refrigerated.

Reality: Those labels mean nothing of the kind. Smoking a food changes its flavor, not its bacterial count. Vacuum-packing (sucking the air out of a package) might help a food keep longer in the refrigerator, but it doesn’t necessarily make it safe for the pantry. And curing might simply alter flavor or texture. Always look for the words “keep refrigerated.” If they’re not there, go ahead and put the package in the cupboard - until you open it, at which point it has to be refrigerated.

Myth: If a recipe says to adjust seasonings according to taste, it’s OK to go ahead and taste the food.

Reality: Depending on the food, that could be playing Russian roulette with your health. You might end up tasting, say, a soup or stew whose ingredients are not yet heated thoroughly enough to be safe from bacteria.