Restaurant Cooking Trends and Increased Risk for Campylobacter Infection.
In the United Kingdom, outbreaks of Campylobacter infection are increasingly attributed to undercooked chicken livers, yet many recipes, including those of top chefs, advocate short cooking times and serving livers pink. During 2015, we studied preferences of chefs and the public in the United Kingdom and investigated the link between liver rareness and survival of Campylobacter. We used photographs to assess chefs' ability to identify chicken livers meeting safe cooking guidelines. To investigate the microbiological safety of livers chefs preferred to serve, we modeled Campylobacter survival in infected chicken livers cooked to various temperatures. Most chefs correctly identified safely cooked livers but overestimated the public's preference for rareness and thus preferred to serve them more rare. We estimated that 19%-52% of livers served commercially in the United Kingdom fail to reach 70°C and that predicted Campylobacter survival rates are 48%-98%. These findings indicate that cooking trends are linked to increasing Campylobacter infections.
Anna K
AK
Jones
Dan
D
Rigby
Michael
M
Burton
Caroline
C
Millman
Nicola J
NJ
Williams
Trevor R
TR
Jones
Paul
P
Wigley
Sarah J
SJ
O'Brien
Paul
P
Cross
D000818:Animals; D002167:Campylobacter / Q000502:physiology; D002169:Campylobacter Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000635:transmission; D002645:Chickens; D003296:Cooking / Q000379:methods*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000382:microbiology*; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D012147:Restaurants; D006113:United Kingdom
Campylobacter jejuni; bacteria; campylobacteriosis; cooking cultures; food poisoning; restaurant practices; undercooked chicken