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Janet B Janet B is offline
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Default Trichinosis cooking safety


I erred in my earlier comment about cooking and freezing pork so I
want to set the record straight. Apparently there are several larvae
and some need higher temperature.

This is from Wiki
Food preparation
Larvae may be killed by the heating or irradiation of raw meat.
Freezing is only usually effective for T. spiralis, since other
species, such as T. nativa, are freeze resistant and can survive
long-term freezing.[12]
All meat (including pork) can be safely prepared by cooking to an
internal temperature of 165°F (74°C) or higher for 15 seconds or more.
Wild game: Wild game meat must be cooked thoroughly (see meat
preparation above) Freezing wild game does not kill all trichinosis
larval worms. This is because the worm species that typically infests
wild game can resist freezing.
Pork: Freezing cuts of pork less than 6 inches thick for 20 days at 5
°F (-15 °C) or three days at -4 °F (-20 °C) kills T. spiralis larval
worms; but this will not kill other trichinosis larval worm species,
such as T. nativa, if they have infested the pork food supply (which
is unlikely).

Pork can be safely cooked to a slightly lower temperature provided
that the internal meat temperature is at least as hot for at least as
long as listed in the USDA table below.[18] Nonetheless, it is prudent
to allow a margin of error for variation in internal temperature
within a particular cut of pork, which may have bones that affect
temperature uniformity. In addition, your thermometer has measurement
error that must be considered. Cook pork for significantly longer and
at a higher uniform internal temperature than listed here to be safe.

Unsafe and unreliable methods of cooking meat include the use of
microwave ovens, curing, drying, and smoking, as these methods are
difficult to standardize and control.[12]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinosis#Prevention