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 M¢25  Funded By Mahalo ? |  August 31, 2009 05:52 PM

Microwave safety and E.coli/salmonella

Well I haven't been on here in a while, lol. But I just came up with a question and, who better to answer it than you guys?

I've picked up a microwave baking/broiling tray. It looks cool, and really the possibilities with it seem endless. I just tried to test the baking side on a frozen pizza, but of course I discovered the tray doesn't fit into my microwave... and then when I tossed the pizza (minus the microwave tray, of course) into my toaster oven, it blew up into huge puffs of smoke. So! The frozen pizza won the battle and did not get eaten. This time. I'll have my victory... eventually.

Anyway. This microwave baking/broiling tray looked like a great way to be lazy. I mean, it says I can cook all sorts of meat on it. Like yay I can be lazy and nuke my chopped meat for hamburgers! But then I thought about E.coli... same for chicken and salmonella, heck my sister's kids nuke eggs all the time to make scrambled eggs... I tried googling for information but, it was either outdated, fuzzy, or from biased websites (i.e. "wellness" websites that hate everything from vaccines to microwaves to antibiotics). The only thing I did find, that I don't know if it's current or not, said that microwaves don't heat evenly, so they leave some cool spots where diseases may not be killed. But, we have those rotating trays now for even cooking? I also found two instances of E.coli breakouts in microwave foods, one in pizza rolls and one in pot pies. So that left me a bit concerned.

What's your verdict? Is this microwave baking/broiling tray really my lazy way to easy good cooking? Or would it just end up getting me royally sick and I should buy a new toaster oven? Dun dun dunnnnnn...
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coltech88 coltech88
 
 September 01, 2009 12:32 AM
There was a study of disinfecting sponges in the microwave recently. The researchers put in sponges containing a witches brew of bacteria, including the spore-making bacteria Bacillus cereus (which is harder to kill than E. coli and Salmonella). After 2 minutes of microwaving, the microwave oven killed more than 99% of the bacteria. They attribute the killing due to the heat that resulted from the microwaves.

So it appears if you microwave sufficiently to create adequate heat throughout the food, then microwaving is safe. Don't eat food from a microwave that is still cold in spots. It is better to microwave at a lower power for a longer time so that the heat has time to diffuse through the food.
Source(s):
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070122143050.htm



Tags: food, safety, bacteria, microwave

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denissssse denissssse
 
September 01, 2009 02:32 PM
Well the cheap ones do not cook evenly but the more expensive ones are the good ones like the Panasonic microwaves have the latest technology called "inverter" technology

As for me I don't have a really fancy microwave that has "inverter" technology and I only use the microwave when I'm in a real hurry or when food is or pre-cooked to be made in the microwave.

I NEVER cook REAL food in the microwave as:
1.) tastes yuck and weird most of the time
2.) danger of food poisoning (not thoroughly cooked)
3.) wasted energy, more discomfort if food tastes bad, waste of food

My sister cooks bacon in the microwave as she likes it CHEWY and because she's super lazy she also scrambles eggs in microwave when all you need is to beat an egg, add salt/pepper put butter/oil in a pan and tada! scrambled is done. I just find microwave scrambled weird (no offense if you do this hehehe)

I suggest buying a new toaster oven as the money you will pay for it will be worth it. Why use a microwave with risk of food poison? it is always better to be safe than sorry :D

Source(s):
http://www.priceme.co.nz/Panasonic-Midsize-Microwave-Stainless-Nnsd686sq/p-...

http://www.panasonic.ca/English/appliance/microwave/inverter.asp


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