Thanksgiving Turkey Safety: Beyond Cooking to 165°F

Served roasted, grilled, smoked, fried, spatchcocked, or slow-cooked, the bird steals the show during Thanksgiving dinner. That kind of spotlight makes most home cooks nervous about getting it just right. But lets talk turkey; the biggest risk comes from undercooking the meat. The U. S. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) releases safe cooking guidelines to ensure that we enjoy a delicious and, above all, safe turkey.

Preparation of the holiday meal can be a perfect way to capture the interest of your students. Food safety can be used to engage students in inquiry-based science. The connection between the safety of their holiday meals and bacteria and denatured proteins will captivate the students in your class. Its a great way to link your lesson plans on food safety and nutrition to students everyday lives.

Which fundamental ideas pertain to both cooking the big bird for the holiday feast and food safety?

Food Pathogens Americans eat more chicken every year than any other meat. 1. Chicken and turkey are quite nutritious. However, when these meats are raw, they frequently harbor Campylobacter bacteria, and occasionally they also harbor Salmonella and Clostridium perfringens bacteria. Yech! That explains why eating undercooked poultry can give you food poisoning. The home cook’s mission is to make a tasty bird while obliterating those nasty bugs. Between 40 °F and 140 °F is the ideal temperature range for bacteria to grow and thrive. In as little as 20 minutes, their population can double. Its so risky that the USDA calls this range the “Danger Zone. ”.

Thats why its important to keep meat refrigerated or cook it at high temperatures. Some people think freezing meat kill germs, but thats a myth. If not handled carefully, freezing merely causes the germs to go dormant until they thaw and become ready to pounce once more.

According to the USDA, heating poultry to a minimum temperature of 165°F eliminates Salmonella, Campylobacter bacteria, and avian influenza viruses. Thats because, above a certain temperature, the bacteria’s cell will collapse and die.

Bacteria contain various proteins. Proteins have precise shapes. They begin as long strands and, depending on the order of their constituent parts, fold into helixes, hairpins, and other shapes. These shapes play a huge role in what proteins do. 2 Heat kills bacteria by denaturing these essential proteins.

The weakest protein structure-preserving bonds begin to break as the temperature rises, and these are followed by stronger bonds.

When proteins or nucleic acids are subjected to external stressors or substances such as strong acids or bases, concentrated inorganic salts, organic solvents (e.g., ethanol), or other chemicals, they lose the quaternary, tertiary, and secondary structures that are present in their native state. g. , alcohol or chloroform), radiation or heat. 3 Denatured proteins in living cells cause disruptions in cell activity and, ideally, lead to the death of bacteria in our turkey

Four levels of structural organization exist in functional proteins: 1) Primary structure, which is the linear arrangement of amino acids that form the polypeptide chain; 2) Secondary structure, which is the regular, repetitive folding of the protein backbone. Alpha helices and beta sheets are the most common forms of peptide group chains that form hydrogen bonds. 3) Tertiary structure: the three-dimensional structure of folded alpha and beta helices
4) Quaternary structure: the three-dimensional structure of multiple polypeptides and how they’re packed together

Heat breaks down the tertiary, quaternary, and secondary structures of proteins, rupturing the cell membrane’s building blocks and causing the cytosolic contents of the cell to leak out. Heat increases the kinetic energy in the secondary and tertiary structures, causing the molecules to vibrate so quickly and violently that the bonds are broken. The high temperature also disrupts the base stacking interaction in DNA and RNA of cells. Finally, the saturated lipids in the cell membrane, upon heating, the bilayer membrane is destroyed. After a denaturation process, the primary structure—the amino acid sequence—remains unchanged because the denaturation reactions aren’t powerful enough to break the peptide bonds.

The CDC estimates that every year, approximately one-sixth of the U. S. pathogens in food cause mild to severe illnesses in the population, and more than 3,000 people pass away from them. Learning food safety science will help your students better understand decisions and practices that may affect their health. Additionally, it might inspire them to take charge and actively participate in preventing foodborne illness.

Theres a lot to digest for students exploring the science of food safety. Equipped with your knowledge, they will comprehend why the USDA advises chefs to increase the heat when cooking the Thanksgiving turkey. At Wards, we hope you and your students have a lovely holiday with your families. Happy Thanksgiving!.

1. Chicken and Food Poisoning | CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/chicken.html 2. https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-heat-kills-cells-20170509 3. Denaturation (biochemistry) – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denaturation_(protein)

Food Safety Thermometer with IR, Sper Scientific

HACCP compliant surface and internal temperature. The built-in bright white flashlight helps illuminate the surface being measured. Gives surface and internal temperature readings. Check the surface temperature of food instantly using infrared technology.

MyLab How Clean is our Home Environment

Single student kit ideal for remote learning solution; teach students about the ubiquity of bacteria right at home. Students can test the efficacy of household cleaners at killing bacteria and how cleaning affects microbial growth.

What temperature kills all bacteria in turkey?