It’s an old wives’ tale that just won’t die: the idea that you should wash your meat and poultry before cooking it. In the newest Meat MythCrusher video, the North American Meat Institute (NAMI) and American Meat Science Association (AMSA) seek to finally put it to rest, as Jonathan Campbell, Ph.D., meat extension specialist at Penn State University, explains the reasons why washing meat and poultry before cooking it is a poor food safety practice.

“From a food safety standpoint it’s a bad idea because we can potentially spread the bacteria that are on the meat to all other areas of our kitchen,” said Dr. Campbell. “That makes the food safety hazard even worse.”

Dr. Campbell adds that washing meat also is not effective at removing all of the potential bacteria, which is best accomplished by cooking the meat to the proper internal temperature as confirmed with a meat thermometer. The video also discusses the best strategies for safely removing meat from packaging to avoid any cross contamination and the proper temperatures for various cuts of meat and poultry.

The newest Meat MythCrusher video is the 47th  in the six year old series produced by the North American Meat Institute and American Meat Science Association featuring interviews with meat scientists who bust some of the most common myths surrounding meat and poultry production and processing. Altogether the videos have been viewed more than 130,000 times. Other video topics include myths surrounding meat nutrition, antibiotic use in livestock, “Superbugs” in meat, Meatless Monday, hormone use in animals, ammonia in ground beef, grass-fed beef and more.

All of the videos as well as a new brochure covering the different meat myths addressed in them are available at http://www.meatmythcrushers.com/.

Source: NAMI