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Meat metrics: Safe grilling temperatures for every food you want to barbecue

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Thinkstock

It’s a hot summer day, the kids are splashing in the pool, and the smell of chicken sizzling on the backyard barbie is making your mouth water. You’re dying to grab it off the grill before it’s done, but doing so could mean you’re done. The skin might look charred and crispy on the outside, but that’s no indication it’s fully cooked on the inside.

Undercooked meat has been the source of many a food-borne illness, since it can harbour parasites and bacteria such as salmonella, campylobacter or E. coli that will fizzle the sizzle of your party pronto. “The knowledge of food safety has increased over the years, and standards are increasing every day within the industry,” says Susan Watson, registered dietician and owner of nutrition coaching and counseling company A Little Nutrition in Winnipeg. “As we learn more about how to keep people safe, we want to educate more.”

Watson says you can still enjoy your steak medium-rare, as long as the outside is cooked and the inside has not been exposed to air. But all meats should reach a safe internal cooking temperature in order to vanquish bacteria and parasites. A digital thermometer is considered the best option because it gives the most accurate and reliable readings. Poke it into the middle of the thickest part of the meat after you’ve removed it from the grill but avoid the bone, which is hotter and could give you a false reading. And, according to the Mayo Clinic, you should not cut into or eat the meat until at least three minutes after it’s removed from the heat.

Another tip? Don't add sauce until your meat is almost done, since most sauces contain sugar which burns easily (try a marinade or spice rub instead). “If your brush touched raw meat, then the marinade, do not save any leftover marinade,” says Watson. “Throw it out."

Just as some undercooked meats can cause problems, so too can overcooked. While char marks might look good in food advertising, they’re rife with cancer-causing compounds called heterocyclic amines (HCAs) that form when meat and high heat meet. The more char, the more carcinogens; the more you consume, the greater the risk of developing pancreatic, prostate and colorectal cancers. Avoid, too, the smoke that billows up from drippings hitting hot coals: it contains toxins that can damage your lungs. Line your grill with aluminum foil to help clear the air or, as Watson recommends, wrap your meat in foil when cooking over the grill.

Closing the barbecue’s cover acts like an oven to ensure a more even cooking temperature — plus it prevents flare-ups. Even better, consider precooking the meat through another method until about half-way done, which will reduce the time it sits over the grill. And never use the same plate for raw and cooked meat to avoid cross-contamination. “It isn’t safe to just rinse the plate,” says Watson. “Get a new one to bring in your cooked burgers.”

To ensure your feast is family-safe, Health Canada recommends the following internal cooking temperatures for the most popular grilled grub:

Ground meat (hamburger and sausage) — 71°C (160°F): You might not want to think about this while you’re taking a bite out of that burger, but the patty is made up of roughly a dozen cows. Any one of them could have been contaminated with sickening bacteria, which then gets ground up into the rest of the meat, leaving you with a post-barbecue gut ache. Cook to kill.

Hot dogs (pork or beef) —74°C (165°F): Although hot dogs are fully cooked in the package, the very young, very old, pregnant and immune-compromised should avoid raw dogs, which could contain listeriosis.

Steak — 63°–77°C (145°–170°F) for a range of medium-rare to well-done: Steak and other whole meats are not as risky as ground or poultry, primarily because they come from a single animal and any bacteria would linger on the surface, easily destroyed by simple searing. Unless, of course, you’ve purchased “mechanically tenderized meat,” which has been punctured, possibly driving any surface bacteria inside.

Pork (pieces, chops and whole cuts) — 71°C (160°F): It used to be that you had to cook that pig to parchment because of the risk of trichinosis, a parasite sometimes found in carnivore animals. Today, with improved food safety knowledge and better production methods, trichinosis is no longer a risk in Canadian pork, according to Pork Marketing Canada. Thick chops and roasts can be cooked safely to (71°C/160°F) or less, leaving a little pink in the middle for a tender, juicy end product. Ground pork and sausage, however, should be cooked thoroughly through.

Poultry (chicken, turkey and duck) 74°C (165°F) and up to 82°C (180°F) for a whole bird: Poultry is the most bacteria-prone of any meat and should always be well-cooked — no pink!

Fish 70°C (158°F): Although fish is delicate and can easily dry out if overdone, cook it well to banish any bacteria and serve with a tasty sauce to restore any lost flavour.

Shellfish (shrimp, lobster, crab, scallops, clams, mussels and oysters) 74°C (165°F): Since it’s a little trickier sticking a thermometer into a clam or mussel, just toss any that don’t open when cooked.

Game (deer, elk, moose, caribou/reindeer, antelope and rabbit, including chops, steaks and roasts) —74°C (165°F): Wild game is leaner and can run the risk of drying out, but since the flavour is generally more intense, you can get away with cooking to well-done without sacrificing taste (try wrapping with bacon to keep it moist while it cooks). If you don’t plan to cook the wild game thoroughly, the Mayo Clinic recommends irradiating or deep-freezing it for at least three weeks to kill trichinella or other parasites.