I always hear that pork has to be thoroughly cooked to prevent things like trichinosis and other parasitic infections. However there’s a lot of types of cured pork commonly eaten, right? Here in Spain everyone eats ham, lomo, chorizo and other stuff that is cured but essentially not cooked, and the few cases of trichinosis that happen are all from people eating game they hunt themselves. Is pork really dangerous?
In: Biology
Trichinosis (in the U.S. at least) doesn’t really exist anymore. It’s perfectly fine to eat pork at 145 degrees internal temp (medium rare.)
It used to be true that pork had to be cooked thoroughly, but now industrial pork raising has reduced that. Many higher end restaurants serve pork medium (pink inside). I now cook pork that way. Much more flavorful, tender and juicy. In Spain, it would depend on where the store gets their pork. If from small farms it might still be a problem.
Curing pork involves salting it, which pulls out the moisture. Without moisture, the bacteria can’t survive.
Additionally, most cured meats have nitrates added, which will kill off anything bad.
Ham, chorizo, lomo are all cured. Curing is the equivalent of cooking in controlling bacteria. It’s not like eating raw pork.
Curing is a food preservation technique that’s been used for centuries if not millennia.
Long before refrigeration was available techniques like curing, salting, and smoking were used to preserve meat.
We eat tons of preserved food all the time but because refrigerators are so common these days we take it for granted. We don’t generally think of things like sausages, cold cuts, and pickles as preserved food these days but these used to be very important sources of food.
The process of curing, salting, or smoking kills bacteria and parasites and lowers the moisture content of meat to make it harder for bacteria to grow. The meat also develops a shell or crust that make it harder for bacteria to get in.
Curing salts also include nitrates which help kill bacteria and prevent them from growing.
(side note ancient cultures knew that drying meat helped preserve it centuries before the discovery of bacteria)
This is why things like cold cuts last such a long time, but the moment you slice them the shelf life is only a few days. By cutting the preserved meat you increase the surface area and remove the protect crust so bacteria can grow and spoil it.
So long as cured meat is keep in a cool and dry place cured meats can last weeks to months.
Curing is a great way of preserving food and has been around for a very long time.
The general principle is that the meat is dehydrated or has a much lower water content than raw meat. Different types of salts are also added which aid in the dehydration and prevent bacterial growth.
Bacteria grows best in moist warm environments so these things act against that.
Similarly, raisins last a lot longer than grapes.
The optometrist i saw last Friday did his residency at a prison. An inmate presented with eye pain. During the exam the dr could see tiny worms wriggling.
The inmate worked in the kitchen where he was stealing raw pork and of course eating it.
So there are a few things to unpack. First, trichinosis has been eradicated in at least some domestic pig areas. I believe this is true in the US, I am not sure about Europe. As a result, some have called for easing of temperature guidelines for pork.
That said, the long curing process you’re referring to for traditional curing makes for an inhospitable environment for both bacteria and parasites. Done properly, it’s equivalent to cooking from a food safety perspective.
If the pork still had a disease it wouldn’t be “cured” now would it? 😛
A lot of people in this thread are talking about bacteria, but I’d just like to highlight that trichinosis is caused by a parasitic nematode – a type of worm. The points about moisture and salt and whatnot still stand, however!
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