RARE BURGERS - Can You Now Serve Them With Impunity?

As with all things food safety the answer is well sort of, but you'll have to jump through numerous hoops to be able to demonstrate that the product you are serving is safe to eat.

Generally speaking, when you use heat treatment (cooking) to make a food safe, if you can achieve a core temperature (at the thickest part) of 70 degrees centigrade for 2 minutes, then you know it is safe to eat and you don't have to prove this fact any further as it is recognised in the UK that this is a safe cooking temperature / time combination.

In food safety speak, this temperature / time combination achieves what is know as a 6 log reduction in harmful bacteria. To but this simply, log means 10 and 6 log is 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 = 1,000,000 (1 million (or 10 to the power 6))

If you use the above mentioned cooking regime, and there are a million bacteria present in the food, then by the end of the cooking time you should have reduced the population to just one.

Over recent months, the Food Standards Agency have been discussing the rise in the popularity of burgers that are served "pink" They are due to hold a board meeting next week and it is highly likely they will propose that burgers can be served pink but only under certain conditions. The discussion paper can be found by following this link :-

http://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/fsa150904.pdf

If you want to serve lightly cooked burgers (defined as those not achieving a 6 log reduction) you will have to be able to prove to your food safety officer some or all of the following:-

1. That you source your meat / mince from a supplier who can guarantee that they have procedures in place during slaughter, cutting and mincing which are as hygienic as possible.
2. That the the meat /mince you use has a low bacterial load and is safe to eat only lightly cooked.
3. That you have a set a specification for the raw mince they supply e.g absence / low levels of certain bacteria and you check it is compliant.
4. How you ensure that the meat they supply meets your specification (your own sampling)
5. That any surface treatment undertaken by you supplier are effective at reducing bacterial load e.g. lactic acid wash.
6. How temperature abuse is controlled throughout the supply chain.
7. How you control the temperature of the meat during processing if you mince it yourself.
8. That in house surface treatments (e.g. sear and shave) are effective and reintroduction of contamination is prevented.
9. That your cooking regime achieves at least a 4 log reduction in bacterial load (10,000 bacteria reduced to 1).
10. That if you serve burgers pink (less than a 6 log reduction), you warn customers (in writing at the point of sale) of the potential risk especially the risk posed to the elderly, very young or those with weakened immune systems.

SIMPLE REALLY!! And finally:-

Good luck with your negotiations with your food safety officer if you want to serve burgers any less than fully cooked.