While listening to the radio the other day, I heard a commercial from the pork industry. I don't think I've heard much advertisement from them since I was a little kid, back when "The Other White Meat" commercials were still often playing.
This new commercial really surprised me, though. It was informing me that the FDA had changed its guidelines for safely cooking pork. It used to be that pork was supposed to be heated to 160 °F. This new commercial claimed that whole pieces of pork could be served "juicy and medium-rare", after being cooked to 145 °F with a three minute rest period before eating. So what gives?
The change apparently occurred on May 24th, though I hadn't heard until just a week or two ago. It's also proving rather difficult to figure out exactly why the guidelines have been changed from 160 to 145 °F. One possible reason is to simply make things simpler for consumers. From the FDS FSIS web site:
"With a single temperature for all whole cuts of meat and uniform 3 minute stand time, we believe it will be much easier for consumers to remember and result in safer food preparation," said Under Secretary Elisabeth Hagen. "Now there will only be 3 numbers to remember: 145 for whole meats, 160 for ground meats and 165 for all poultry."
The site claims that the FDA has found pork to be as safe at 145 °F with a three minute rest as it has historically been at 160 °F with no rest time. They don't show any actual data, and they don't explain how they qualify and quantify "safety" in food. Furthermore, when I try to hunt around and look for scholarly papers on the subject, I can't seem to find anything at all.
What I was able to find was the official FDA legislation on elimination of the parasitic larvae responsible for the pork-borne disease trichinosis. Evidently, the parasite is killed instantly upon exposure to temperatures off 144 °F. If you're willing to wait three minutes or so, 136 °F will do. Again, there wasn't much in terms of source material to be found, but if those statistics are true we can say that 145 °F with a three minute rest will certainly kill just about every larva. There's even a comfortable margin of error of nine degrees.
In spite of this, I can't help but wonder whether or not this change in legislation is a result of lobbying from the pork industry. Trichinosis is nowhere near eliminated - tens of thousands of people (mostly in the developing world) contract it every year. It's curable, but treatment is fairly slow and the disease is painful. Regardless, pork-borne disease isn't a big deal in the United States, and it hasn't been for a long time. While grilling or pan-frying, heating pork to an internal temperature of 160 °F results in meat that can be tough and dry. The new guidelines will give a tastier, juicier cut. If people find pork tastier, they'll eat more of it and the hog industry of the Midwest will prosper. Hell, it might create a few jobs. Personally, I just cook my pork a bit more slowly. Sear it first, and then move onto a steady but slow heating method and you can reach a safe temperature without sacrificing any juiciness.
The only thing I know for sure is that if I serve my girlfriend pink pork for dinner, I'll be a dead man by morning.
Intriguing I had heard about this though never gave much thought as to why it changed.
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