BBC Focus Magazine

[Liam Sheppard]

Now, you should only reheat chicken twice and make sure it is piping hot all the way through. Any more and it gets dodgy. However, If I cook chicken in a microwave would it kill any bacteria that would cause me to vomit, get food poisoning etc?

strepptococcuss, ebola, etc? so could we cook off meat in the microwave and then eat it?

[M Paul Lloyd]

Ah now then, to kill certain 'food poisoning' bugs I'm pretty sure it takes a certain amount of time at a certain temperature to kill them off, so a quick blast in a microwave might not do it. I think?

[MrIsaksson]

I remember we tried that with some agar plates with various bacteria in the lab just for fun a few years ago and microwaves were rubbish in killing bacteria. Most of of our plates survived.

We didnt do it in a scientific way, we were just messing around but it was pretty clear that microwave ovens arent very good for killing bacteria.

Not sure why.. but obviously must have to do, in one way or another, with watercontent of their cells. Perhaps some of them were as spores....

Anyway, we tried 5 minute blasts in the microwave on some of the agar plates and the little buggers still survived and started to grow

[M Paul Lloyd]

Apparently meat and poultry can carry
E. coli
Salmonella
Campylobacter
Toxoplasmosis
Trichinella spiralis
Listeria.
And Fish
Vibrio cholerae
Hepatitis A.

As far as I can tell a minimum temperature of 80 degrees Centigrade will do for these little nasties but the toxins they produce may require time to break down and 20 minutes at that temperature seems to be accepted as adequate.

I don't personally like cooking meat in a microwave, it always seems to end up a bit tough and stringy.

[Shadowwolf]

Even though it is using microwaves to cause the heating the food still cooks via heat and it is heat that also kills any bacteria present. Not heated long enough or at sufficient temp then they'll still be there to give you a bad day.

[M Paul Lloyd]

And a bad night probably....

[Shadowwolf]

Ah the voice of familiar experience

[M Paul Lloyd]

Yes, been to the odd Barby and eaten a little too much pink fleshed drumstick, charred black on the outside but still raw in the middle, you can't be too careful with chicken if you ask me.

[ChrisH]

I believe pork is especially dodgy if not thoroughly cooked as well.