How rare can you eat pork

Other animals, like wolves, boars, bears, and walruses, can also be carriers of this roundworm 1 , 2. These lead to infections, like taeniasis or cysticercosis 3 , 4. To diminish the risk of developing these infections, you should always cook your pork to the appropriate temperature. Eating raw or undercooked pork can make you very sick and put you at risk for parasites like roundworm or tapeworms.

Symptoms of trichinosis can emerge within 1 to 2 days of consuming the contaminated, undercooked pork — but may not show for up to a week after ingestion 5. Once the larvae enter your digestive system and begin to reproduce on days 5 to 7, you may experience gastrointestinal upset, with symptoms like nausea, vomiting , diarrhea, fatigue, and abdominal cramps 5.

Then, a week to several weeks after ingestion, the larvae begin to burrow themselves into muscle and intestinal walls. In this phase, symptoms like a high fever, muscle ache, light sensitivity, eye infections, facial swelling, rashes, headaches, and chills are common 5.

Trichinosis can sometimes lead to more serious complications, affecting the heart or the brain. While these complications are rare, they can be fatal. With adequate medical treatment, most will recover from trichinosis in about 8 weeks 5. Tapeworms can be detected about 2 to 3 months after ingestion of contaminated meat by means of a series of stool samples. However, if you suddenly experience seizures, this is one of the symptoms of cysticercosis.

This means the tapeworm has traveled to other areas of the body like the brain, eye, or heart 4. Those with a compromised immune system should be especially vigilant about following food safety guidelines and cooking pork to an appropriate temperature.

This includes those who are pregnant, undergoing cancer therapy, or on certain medications which suppress the immune system. Symptoms of trichinosis can include nausea, abdominal cramps, and, later, muscle pains, facial swelling, and high fevers.

Tapeworms may not cause symptoms but can still make you sick and even cause sudden seizures. Due to improved agricultural practices in the United States, Canada, and Europe in the last several decades, developing trichinosis has become rare 5 , 6. In fact, from —, an average of 16 cases of trichinosis were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC in the United States each year 6 , 7.

Worldwide trichinosis estimates are much greater — at 10, cases each year — most stemming from China and Southeast Asian or Eastern European countries 5 , 6. On October 1, , the United States Department of Agriculture USDA announced it would reduce the number of its inspectors on site and allow pork manufacturers to inspect their pork products themselves.

These measures went into effect just 2 months later 8. Previously, only government inspectors could determine which pork products looked safe enough to be sold to the public 8. Therefore, thoroughly cooking your pork remains crucial. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found only 84 confirmed cases in the five inclusive years between and —none fatal—and, interestingly, only 22 of those could be traced to pork. Game seems to be much more affected by trichinosis than pork, so you may want to think twice before digging into a bear-meat tartare.

Results from other countries vary; the USDA says that trichinosis is essentially extinct in countries like Denmark and The Netherlands, but in many countries it's more common. Gravely handles questions from the general public about how to safely buy, store, cook, and eat animal products, and it's probably worth noting that when I asked if she'd ever eat raw or pink pork, even from a trusted restaurant, she replied with a flat "No.

I think I'd want it to be cooked to a safe temperature. The USDA governs pork producers that are selling to consumers; restaurants, on the other hand, are subject to the regulations of local health departments. That said, Gravely did note that there are methods that can kill bacteria without meeting those numbers; when cooked sous vide, for example, pork sits at a lower temperature for a longer period of time, which can be just as effective at eliminating food-borne illnesses and it tastes remarkably good.

The USDA's recommendations may seem strict, but its job is to try to prevent as many possible instances of food-borne illness as possible. But both those statistics lag far behind the reported numbers for chicken, and pork has rarely been implicated in mass outbreaks. Of the salmonella outbreaks, That said, the fact remains: There are plenty of pathogens in raw or less-cooked pork.

The most common is Staphylococcus aureus , which can lead to all kinds of diseases, including some that can be life-threatening, like pneumonia and meningitis. Other pathogens that can be found in raw pork include Listeria 7. Then again, the risks of eating raw or pink pork are not notably worse than those that come with runny egg yolks, beef tartare, or cheap delivery sushi. And the payoff, chefs argue, is worth it. A pork chop, for example, doesn't have the kind of intramuscular marbling that a beef ribeye or strip steak has; some heat is necessary to break down the tendons.

But that point, say chefs, is far short of the fully gray, well-done steak that's been served in this country for decades. I feel that you can feel the fat better in your mouth when pork is raw. When the pork quality is really top-notch, the fat should have a buttery consistency to it," says Cosmo Goss of The Publican in Chicago. As for raw? Food safety rules for restaurants are generally in accordance with the FDA's guidelines, not the USDA's, and assume a much higher level of skill, consistency, and cleanliness in a restaurant kitchen than in a home.

As a result, it is legal for the overwhelming majority of US restaurateurs to serve pork at basically whatever level of doneness they want. That said, the customer does have to be warned that less-cooked pork, eggs, fish, or whatever else can come with an increased risk of food-borne illness. These warnings might appear on the menu or on a placard somewhere in sight. But the fact that serving less-cooked pork is generally legal has not resulted in hordes of chefs racing to serve it, in contrast with, say, the re-legalization of foie gras in California in Almost all of the chefs I talked to mentioned that most customers still avoid it.

Even Andy Ricker, whose restaurants have introduced Americans to Northern Thai cuisine that most didn't know existed, doesn't serve it—and he acknowledges that it's not uncommon to find raw pork larb in parts of Northern Thailand.

But "I wouldn't try to serve raw pork," he says. He even serves raw pork larb when he does private dinners for friends and other chefs. The virus usually causes a mild illness but in some cases it can lead to acute liver failure, which can prove fatal, particularly for pregnant women.

The trend for pork to be be served pink intensified in when the US Department of Agriculture lowered the recommended minimum cooking temperature of pork by 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

Slow cooking meat "sous-vide", in vacuum packs in a water bath at a low temperature, has also been a factor in the increasing popularity of pork tenderloin and shoulder to be served pinkish. Chefs and food critics complain that inspectors have been over-zealous in applying the rules governing the cooking of meat. But Morris defended the right of food inspectors to intervene in the debate.

This article is more than 8 years old. Gourmets say rare meat tastes better as inspectors warn of potentially fatal virus in undercooked meat.