Here’s Why Eating Raw Meat is Never A Good Idea

Everyone has their Christmas traditions. For some its turkey and roast vegetables, others prefer seafood and pavlova, or some combination of all of the above. And for others, it’s raw meat.

Apparently, a holiday tradition in the US state of Wisconsin is a raw meat sandwich. Families are so into it that the Wisconsin state department actually had to issue a public announcement warning the dangers of consuming raw meat.

Why you should never eat raw meat

For anyone else who is considering eating raw meat, or undercooking that burger a little too much, you definitely should not. There are quite a few reasons why eating uncooked meat can be very hazardous to your health.

A representative from the Food Safety Information Council gave Lifehacker Australia some advice on this issue:

“Our advice is to never eat raw or undercooked red meat or poultry as it is such a risk for food poisoning. Poultry and minced meat products such as hamburgers and sausages must be cooked to 75C in the centre to be safe. Whole pieces of red meat like a steak can be cooked to taste as long as the outside is seared to kill any bacteria, once it is minced that bacteria moves to the inside.”

While we don’t have the tradition of uncooked minced meat sandwiches in Australia, the Food Safety Information Council did issue a warning for certain local dishes like steak tartare, which is made of up from raw mince and raw eggs.

If you’re looking for a temperature guide for cooking your meat, here’s what the FSIC suggests:

• 77C for well done
• 71C for medium
• 63C for medium-rare

Also, never let raw meat touch any other foods that you’re cooking with or you risk cross-contamination. Always change plates, knives and cutting boards. And when defrosting meat, make sure it is completely thawed before cooking or it may not cook through.

If you ignore this device you risk catching a whole lot of infections like E. coli, listeria and salmonella. So maybe just, cook your meat?