Pinkish Pork Will Not Hurt
It seems like the days of well-done pork is finally over. And it is about time it happens.
The recent decision of the US Department of Agriculture‘s Food Safety and Inspection Service to reduce the required temperature in cooking slices of pork is a long overdue change. By lowering the cooking temperature of pork to 145 degrees, pork is now placed by the department on the same standard as cooking beef, veal, and lamb.
This recent development is considered by chefs as an official acknowledgement of what is considered as a fact. Cooking pork at higher temperatures is not that bad, since it would certainly kill certain bacteria and pathogens present in the meat. The downside of this is that most of the juices would have been removed, making the meat dry and tasteless. With the lower cooking temperature requirement, people would no longer be afraid to serve medium-rare pork chops at home.
Still, old habits can die hard. It may take some time before the announcement can catch on to the people. Food handling can be a problem, which include the freshness of the meat. In any case, as long as proper hygiene is observed, and pork is allowed to stand for at least three minutes after cooking, then it would not pose a problem at all.