: How do food shows and gourmet menu serve semi cooked sea food and meat without risking diseases?
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When do they do that?
They nay serve beef rare for example, but I’d highly doubt they’ll be serving up partially cooked chicken.
Places that are serving those things are (ideally) buying from super reputable sources with incredibly high quality product. Being really diligent about holding temperature and how the meat is handled from the second they receive it mitigates a large amount of potential issues, but it’s not 100%
Some meats, like steak, can be served rare because bacteria only live on the outer surface. As long as you cook the outside, it’s safe.
Sometimes meat can be served raw if it’s prepared in a way that also kills bacteria. For instance, steak tartare or ceviche marinated in an acid like vinegar or lemon juice.
Certain meats can be served raw safely
Highend restaraunts not only know how to serve it safely, they also have the kitchens to do it and can source the high quality meat required.
Some raw meat is actually submerged in boiling salt water for a few seconds to kill bacteria, while others are mixed with acids like vinegar and lemon juice. Some meats are seared only on the outside because the bacteria only lives on the surface.
It’s only when meat is cut, sliced, and diced (increasing the surface area) that it really because vulnerable to bacteria. This is why meat is prepared at the last possible minute. If you slice meat and leave it around, that’s when you have a problem. This is also why meat like cold cuts lasts so long, it’s sealed in an outer crust that prevents the bacteria from getting to the meat inside, but the moment you slice it the shelf life is greatly reduced.
Sushi for example is safe because Ocean fish is far less likely to have bacteria and parasites than river fish.
Raw tuna for example is perfectly safe so long as it’s stored and prepared properly.
A lot of sushi restaurants (particularly lower end ones, and those away from the coasts) will serve flash frozen Tuna instead. The fast freezing process kills any bacteria while (mostly) preserving the texture and allows them to store it safely in a fridge. So it appears raw, but it was previously frozen.
River fish like eel however has to be cooked to make it safe, which is why BBQ’d eel is a common form of sushi prep.
Chicken is one of the most notorious meats that shouldn’t be eaten raw because chickens are very likely to contain salmonella. That’s why Chicken is almost always served well done.
Statistics.
Odds are you’ll be fine.
Cook 100 dishes, odds are slightly less fine.
Cook 10,000 dishes… well…
Cook 1,000,000 dishes… someone is getting sick.
There is always a higher risk of diseases than fully cooked food. It’s just low enough with some process like freezing so that people are willing to take it for better taste
In most places, any seafood that’s not gong to be cooked to pathogen-killing temperatures has to be frozen before preparation in order to kill off the nasties.
They don’t.
As per the CDC eating undercooked food is a health risk. This included your rare steak, your sushi, ceviche, etc.
The CDC recommends you don’t eat those foods.
We do it anyway. Flavor trumps safety, at least in this regard.
that’s the neat part, they don’t
but seriously, eating raw seafood is always gonna be an enhanced risk for disease; “quality” sources mitigate this somewhat but there’s a reason our Stone Age ancestors invented this whole “cook things with fire” idea
We do risk it. We put a consumer health advisory on the menu. It say “consuming undercooked meat, poultry, or seafood can cause foodborne diseases” or something similar. They change it every so often, but it comes on any menu serving rare meat, seafood, or any poultry. At least in my state. Health inspectors can tag you if you don’t have it on a menu, but serve rare tuna or mid rare steak.
We also serve good food and take all precautions to make sure that no one gets sick. But over the course of 24 years, and over 1,000,000 pounds of chicken cooked, and probably well over 1.5 million meals served, even though I hate to say it, I’ve probably made at least one person sick – statistically speaking. I don’t know if any, they never told me of anything like that, but it has likely happened if we’re all being honest.
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