Uncooked Pork W/Cure Question

[goslats]

Does pork need to be frozen according to FDA recommendations before using in smoked or dried sausage. For instance if you use some pork in a beef stick and only bring IT to 150 will that be a problem. Does the cure with smoking and drying cover the 'uncooked' issue? Thanks

[johngaltsmotor]

If you're going to sell it then yes, it needs to be frozen (or one of the other approved treatments). If it is for personal consumption then it is not required. I often buy pork shoulders on sale and store them in the deep freezer until needed which meets the recommendation. But I have also used fresh pork without any problem. The biggest cause for concern was the trichinella worm, but modern pork production techniques have all but eliminated that in commercially produced pork.

I know that regulations on cooking pork were recently reduced to allow medium rare pork to be served in restaurants. I do not recall the new minimum temperature though.

Smoking and or drying deals with reducing the rate of bacteria growth. Freezing was specified to kill organisms present in the meat during the pigs life.

[DiggingDogFarm]

The freezing of pork (for an appropriate amount of time) is to kill Trichinella.

Whether you freeze it or not for personal use is up to you.

Trichinella is also killed in 47 minutes at 52° C (125.6° F), in 6 minutes at 55° C (131° F), and in < 1 minute at 60° C (140° F).

~Martin

[Oddwookiee]

I vaguely remember reading the temp was lowered to 140F for pork, but no promises on accuracy.

As for freezing before processing, you need to freeze it only if you do not raise it to a minimum safe temperature. I can't speak to dry-cured, aged products, but if a pork item is cooked to safe temperature as per your local regulations, freezing beforehand is a waste of time and detrimental to your end product.

[DiggingDogFarm]

The recommended safe cooking temperature for whole cuts of pork (non-poked, non-proded, non-injected) was lowered from 160 °F to 145 °F with a three-minute rest time.


~Martin