Cooling game meat crucial to safe, delicious dining

Hunters, by law, are required to salvage the meat from game they kill in Idaho and Washington.

Most sportsmen willingly go a step further and make sure the meat isn’t just salvaged but also kept in tip-top condition for safely feeding their families and friends.

“After you harvest wild game, it becomes food and must be treated with the same care as other meat,” said Dr. Kathy Lofy, Washington state health officer in Olympia.

Hunters heading out for elk and other big game in early season must think ahead about how they will care for meat in warm-weather conditions.

That means having a plan before you get an 800-pound bull on the ground 2 miles from the nearest road.

The key to preserving meat is starting the cooling process quickly. Game animals should be skinned immediately and in most cases, quartered and hanged off the ground in the coolest spot around and quickly transporting the meat to cold storage.

Large coolers stocked with ice should be on hand to keep game meat cool and clean if a hunter can’t get the meat quickly to processing. Removing meat from the bones in the field also helps speed cooling. 

Spoilage isn’t the only consideration. Hunters also should be aware of the potential for disease ranging from salmonella to trichinosis, a fairly common risk posed by cougar meat.

“It’s important that hunters learn and follow recommendations to properly handle harvested animals – from the field to the fork – to make sure wild game meat doesn’t cause food-borne illnesses,” Lofy said.

In contrast to domestically raised animals, wild game animals don’t receive veterinary care. The meat is not inspected before or after harvest, and processing starts in the field.

Important steps hunters can take to ensure the food they bring home is safe include:

• Don’t harvest, handle, or eat visibly sick animals;

• Wear protective rubber gloves for field dressing and meat handling;

• Wash hands thoroughly (soap should be in a hunter’s pack);

• Cool meat quickly;

• Cook wild game meat to a minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees.

Elk hoof disease in two southwest Washington herds has raised questions about the safety of the meat. Affected elk have malformed hooves from a bacterial disease, but officials from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the state health department agree that the meat isn’t affected by the disease and poses no health risk to people if handled properly.

To help minimize the spread of the disease, WDFW requires hunters in southwest Washington leave on-site the hooves of any elk they harvest.