# Cross Contamination - Recipe for disaster or media hype?



## Steve G (Nov 29, 2016)

If you've watched any cooking programs you likely noticed that the host/cast make a big deal about cooking meats thoroughly and *cross contamination* of foods from a food safety perspective.

I fail to understand the concern over cross contamination because nobody has ever explained it and I don't generally accept things as true without some understanding of why. So perhaps someone here can explain.

The idea that comes across to me is that you should never use the same utensils or surfaces to prepare different proteins.

So if I prepare properly cared for and refrigerated venison, chicken and pork all on the same cutting board and with the same knife before I cook them to bacteria killing temperatures, I'm supposed to die a horrible death, yet against all odds I am still alive.

The reason I ask is there are people in my life who think that I am playing with fire if I so much as cook to different proteins on the BBQ grill at the same time. I think that they are victims of media hype.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

True "Cross contamination" is not an issue with food borne pathogens, it is *only* an issue for people with food borne allergies.

For instance, if you have a shrimp allergy and I cooked shrimp on the barbie last week on my grill and have you over this week for venison steaks, the residual shrimp protein on my grill could make you have an allergic reaction when you eat the venison steaks if I don't thoroughly clean it. Similar with frying pans, utensils, and other kitchen implements. Patients with stuff like peanut allergies can have attacks triggered by even small amounts of antigen in sauces, seasoning mixes, and residues in pans/grills.

If no people you cook for have a known food allergy, you probably have little to worry about.

Obviously, making sure that meat is cooked to proper temperature is an important, but different issue.


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

Catherder said:


> True "Cross contamination" is not an issue with food borne pathogens, it is *only* an issue for people with food borne allergies.
> 
> Obviously, making sure that meat is cooked to proper temperature is an important, but different issue.


I have to disagree. I worked in a Butcher Shop for a short time, and we always processed Beef first. Pork was the last animal we would cut up. When we did cut Pork, it was washing EVERTHING with a solution of some kind, and very hot water with soap. Then repeat, and wipe down. Yard Bird is the same.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

taxidermist said:


> I have to disagree. I worked in a Butcher Shop for a short time, and we always processed Beef first. Pork was the last animal we would cut up. When we did cut Pork, it was washing EVERTHING with a solution of some kind, and very hot water with soap. Then repeat, and wipe down. Yard Bird is the same.


Right, but why? Pork may have been done last for 2 reasons.

1. Most likely, it was due to heightened concern about trichinella, a food pathogen of pork that they don't want spread to the beef product. Were it to happen, if you properly cooked your beef, you would still be fine, as you would eating properly cooked pork.

2. There are patients that have allergy to either beef or pork but not both. (Fairly common in dogs, FWIW) In these folks, if pork antigen gets mixed with a beef product, even in small amounts, they will have an allergic reaction if they eat the supposedly beef product, even if cooked properly otherwise. It often doesn't take very much to trigger an allergy patient to have an attack.

It may be a bit confusing how I explained it to answer the original question, but there is some "contamination" that is not a problem if you cook and handle your meat properly, and there is "cross contamination" of different proteins that can result in a food allergy *for an allergy patient* that can occur even if meat is cooked properly. The residue on the grill example and reason 2 above are examples of those. People who do *NOT* have food allergies will have no problems in these instances.


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

In the meat coolers we always seperated the beef, pork, and chicken as per law. In small coolers on shelves it was beef top, pork middle, and chicken bottom. We also had 2 slicers, one for cooked and one for raw. Most of your retail shops now do not make there own sausage, grind fresh pork, chicken, or turkey. Reasoning being fear of cross contamination. As Catherder said cooking to proper temps is important!!


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

I was 16 when I was at the Butcher Shop. I didn't have the "science" explained to me but I do remember the "contamination" conversation. I agree that the proper temp needs to be reached when cooking different meats.


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

For all practical purposes, in the kitchen, the cross contamination that you need to be concerned about is the transfer of contamination from an uncooked product like meat to a product that will more than likely not get cooked. For example, cutting a salad on the same cutting board that your just cut meat on. While you can transfer bacteria from one meat to the other, if the meat is brought up to the proper temp before you serve it there won't be a problem. 
If you buy and use a meat thermometer and follow the guidelines you won't have a problem.
Interestingly enough, more illness comes from unwashed contaminated fresh fruits and vegetables than comes from contaminated meats.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

BPturkeys said:


> For all practical purposes, in the kitchen, the cross contamination that you need to be concerned about is the transfer of contamination from an uncooked product like meat to a product that will more than likely not get cooked. For example, cutting a salad on the same cutting board that your just cut meat on. While you can transfer bacteria from one meat to the other, if the meat is brought up to the proper temp before you serve it there won't be a problem.
> If you buy and use a meat thermometer and follow the guidelines you won't have a problem.
> Interestingly enough, more illness comes from unwashed contaminated fresh fruits and vegetables than comes from contaminated meats.


All good points. One other tip for avoiding problems when grilling is to use a different plate to bring the meat in instead of the one that brought the raw meat out to the grill on. If you have a pool of raw juices (or even small amounts) at the bottom of the plate and put your cooked meat back onto that plate, you are potentially re contaminating the meat you just carefully cooked.

All that said, none of these examples are cases of protein cross contamination, which was a big part of the original question and is a genuine problem for some people.


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## Steve G (Nov 29, 2016)

Great a responses. Thanks. I hadn't considered the food allergy perspective as there is nobody in my life with a food allergy nor has there ever been one.

I was being narrow minded. That is a legitimate concern that hasn't had any impact in my life.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

This is my favorite thread.

Mrs Goob worked the kitchen at the Wyoming State Hospital and had gobs of training on food cross contamination. I was raised on a hog farm and drug the beef, pork and chickens across the same piece of dirty barnyard . 

She had like 6 different colors of cutting boards to help keep us all safe. For the last 3 years before she died I did all the cooking. I was always in trouble for using the wrong cutting board.

She liked my cooking though and ate most everything I made...uh... she didn't like my head cheese if I left the hog's eyeballs in it. I think she was allergic to pig eyeballs; a pig eyeball allergen if I may. 

Those were the days.


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