This week, the federal government announced that 32 people in 12 states were sickened with salmonella poisoning after eating precooked, frozen chicken dinners. The problem? Many of the people who got sick apparently did not follow the instructions for preparing the meal, which called for heating it in an oven. Those who got sick popped their meals in microwaves instead.
According to the Department of Agriculture, the dishes included breaded or pre-browned chicken breasts, some of them stuffed with vegetables or sold as “chicken Kiev” and “chicken cordon bleu.” The appearance of the food led people to assume that the chicken breasts were thoroughly cooked, even though they were still raw or undercooked inside. The agency said that some of the sicknesses occurred in Minnesota, but would not identify the 11 other states involved in the outbreak.
Minnesota has an unfortunate track record when it comes to frozen chicken. Just last year, Minnesota was one of 31 states affected by an outbreak of salmonella — caused by Banquet pot pies — that sickened 165 people. And since 1998, the state has been struck by at least four other outbreaks linked to pre-browned chicken, resulting in part from problems with microwave instructions.
“The issue is that people think it’s cooked and it just needs to be heated up,” Carlota Medus, an epidemiologist with the Minnesota Department of Health, told the New York Times last year. “Microwave cooking for something that has to be cooked isn’t always a good idea.”
Many of those who became ill in this year’s outbreak apparently did not get that message.
“Although many of these stuffed chicken entrees were labeled with instructions identifying the product was uncooked and did not include microwave instruction for preparation,” the agency said in a statement, “individuals who became ill did not follow the cooking instructions and reportedly used a microwave to prepare the product.”
For starters, it’s best to stick to ovens when heating frozen chicken. Also be sure that the meat has reached a minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit — the temperature at which any foodborne bacteria will be killed off — and use a food thermometer to be certain. A good one might cost as much as $18 or more, but it beats coping with the symptoms of salmonellosis: diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and nausea that can last as long as seven days.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/microwaved-chicken-isnt-necessarily-cooked-chicken/?hpLinkback: http://4seasonschat.com/index.php/topic,12480.msg136385.html#msg136385
Topic: Microwaved Chicken Isn’t Necessarily Cooked Chicken (Read 103 times)