In Washington, D.C., the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service recently completed an observational study in which participants were recorded cooking in a test kitchen to see if they handled food unsafely while cooking. Preliminary results show that participants did not do well preventing bacteria from spreading around their kitchen or verifying that their turkey burgers were safe to eat.
In fact, the participants failed to properly wash their hands 97 percent of the time, 48 percent cross-contaminated spice containers and 5 percent transferred bacteria to salads they prepared. 66 percent of participants did not use a food thermometer and when they did, 45 percent did not cook the turkey burger to the minimum safe internal temperature of 165°F.
The USDA recommends that you always follow the five steps of handwashing after touching raw meat and poultry and ensure that you destroy dangerous bacteria by cooking to the proper temperature.