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When it comes to cooking, I have an intense fear of handling raw meat but chicken especially. I always wear plastic gloves, lay down foil, and spray, wipe everything down with Clorox vigorously after. I even wear goggles. I also wash my hands raw. After the meat the is done cooking, I'm still paranoid that I didn't cook it long enough and that I'll get ill soon.
I'm afraid I'm going to end up physically damaged or disabled from a parasite, screwworms or something of the like getting into my body. I watched too many Monsters Inside Me when I was a teen and that partly led to my fears. Lately I'll just buy fried or rotisserie chicken from Publix since it's already cooked.
The mode of transmission is different for bacteria vs parasites. Bacteria is usually something that covers the food and in a few cases unless it is spoiled or left out like potato salad etc then it will start growing within the food. If you touch with your hands then it can get transferred to your hands. It then can get into your mouth, mucous membranes or simply cause skin infections.
Parasites are different in that the mode of transmission is in consuming the flesh. The parasites are embedded in the flesh and not really on the outside of the meat. Cooking temperatures are important to kill parasites. Physical contact with hands is not really an efficient mode of transmission. That can be a mode of autoinfection once one is already infected.
Just because a food may contain parasites does not mean that those parasites can infect you since most parasites are species specific. Keep in mind that most fish contain worms either in the gut or in the flesh. Our assign in medical parasitology was to go to the local fish store and pick up a fish that has not been gutted. My fish had worms in the gut and in paracytic cyst worm in the flesh. We popped the cyst and the little worm started to wake up and wiggle.
The mode of transmission is different for bacteria vs parasites. Bacteria is usually something that covers the food and in a few cases unless it is spoiled or left out like potato salad etc then it will start growing within the food. If you touch with your hands then it can get transferred to your hands. It then can get into your mouth, mucous membranes or simply cause skin infections.
Parasites are different in that the mode of transmission is in consuming the flesh. The parasites are embedded in the flesh and not really on the outside of the meat. Cooking temperatures are important to kill parasites. Physical contact with hands is not really an efficient mode of transmission. That can be a mode of autoinfection once one is already infected.
Just because a food may contain parasites does not mean that those parasites can infect you since most parasites are species specific. Keep in mind that most fish contain worms either in the gut or in the flesh. Our assign in medical parasitology was to go to the local fish store and pick up a fish that has not been gutted. My fish had worms in the gut and in paracytic cyst worm in the flesh. We popped the cyst and the little worm started to wake up and wiggle.
oh yuck! if someone wasnt afraid of bugs before you're description of the fish cyst was sure to do it! Oh yuck!
When it comes to cooking, I have an intense fear of handling raw meat but chicken especially. I always wear plastic gloves, lay down foil, and spray, wipe everything down with Clorox vigorously after. I even wear goggles. I also wash my hands raw. After the meat the is done cooking, I'm still paranoid that I didn't cook it long enough and that I'll get ill soon.
I'm afraid I'm going to end up physically damaged or disabled from a parasite, screwworms or something of the like getting into my body. I watched too many Monsters Inside Me when I was a teen and that partly led to my fears. Lately I'll just buy fried or rotisserie chicken from Publix since it's already cooked.
Short answer-- you're over-reacting....Be concerned enough not to be cavalier with cleanliness in the kitchen.
Far and away (10s of millions of cases each year) as the most common food-borne illness is Staph endotoxin poisoning. That comes when someone's fingers touches the food after it's cooked and then you let the food sit out to cool slowly and the bugs proliferate over the course of hours and then you eat the leftovers....Meat is almost never contaminated before you bring it home. (Look how many'recalls" there are. They catch most contaminations before they get to the public.)
Just like we have E.coli in our bowels all the time, poultry almost always have Salmonella. The meat should be sterile, but the skin can be contaminated. Cooking will render it harmless, but it's easy to forget youv're touched the skin as you prepare it and the counter top or plate on which the raw chicken was prepared may be contaminated. Washing & wiping with the usual cleaning sprays is good enough.
Other parasites that can infect the brain & liver etc are too rare to even bother thinking about unless you like traveling to third world countries and eating the stuff sold by sidewalk vendors.
1 in a million Americans are hit by lightening every year; 4 in a million get parasitic (all types) brain abscesses-- almost none of them from food.
Use a candy thermometer to monitor the internal temp of meat as it is cooking.
The primary thing that gets transferred by touch is salmonella.
Our nearby State University recently opened a new Plant & animal disease diagnostics lab. At one presentation I attended, a professor was showing us the table and equipment they use for autopsies. She said that last year her students raised a flock of chickens specifically so they could perform autopsies [to gain hands-on experience]. And all of their chickens had salmonella. I thought that given the controlled circumstances and on a university campus, surely they would be able to raise healthy chickens free of disease. But they couldn't.
oh yuck! if someone wasnt afraid of bugs before you're description of the fish cyst was sure to do it! Oh yuck!
Those are not infectious to man. They might elicit a temporary irritation but man is not the host for such parasites. Most people wouldn't even be able to see them or at least recognize them for what they are because they are so small unless you had a dissecting scope with you.
I also go fishing and if you ever go get mussels at the seashore they are just full of worms. Quite frankly anything coming out of the ocean is just unavoidable to not have any parasites but again they are harmless. All one has to do is obviously remove any visible parasites and cook the flesh well.
Bacterial contamination is a much bigger problem in food and so yes gloves would be recommended and washing of cutting boards and proper cooking is always wise to do. I know it is a fad to be eating raw stuff but one is taking chances.
If I was that worried about getting sick from cooking animal protein, either I'd never prepare it at home and eat it only from restaurants or I'd become a vegetarian.
... I thought that given the controlled circumstances and on a university campus, surely they would be able to raise healthy chickens free of disease. But they couldn't.
The chickens were not "diseased." They were colonized by Salmonella (all avians are)- just like you are colonized by Staph, Strep, E.coli etc etc
My understanding that the chicken/skin is sprayed with disinfectants like food grade peroxide to render it almost sterile
Not sure what they do with beef and pork
The government actually does not recommend to wash the meat and poultry prior to cooking as it may spread the potential for infection around your kitchen - they say just cook it - bacteria and all! .
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