Posted: May 25th, 2011 - 11:15am
Source: Meatingplace

(The views and opinions expressed in this blog are strictly those of the author.)
Seems like every time I write a blog about how we might be able to improve the safety of our meat and poultry supply, I get a plethora of “Just cook it” comments. If only it were that simple.
But last blog I did promise I would make the topic one for discussion, secretly hoping that maybe this would allow some self satisfaction for the “Just cook it” crowd so that future blogs on improving safety could stay focused on the subject at hand.
But before the folks begin their lecture about “Just cook it” I am asking them to answer a few questions for me:
1. Do you ever eat out side the home where someone else holds your health in their hands?
2. Do you ever eat barbecue at the neighbors’?
3. Do you ever enjoy a church potluck luncheon?
4. Do you ever tailgate with friends? 
5. Do you order your steak medium rare without first asking if it has been blade tenderized?
6. Have you ever enjoyed washing down a raw oyster with a cold beer in the Big Easy?
7. Do you like a tuna steak seared on the outside but pink in the middle?
8. Do you order your eggs “sunny side up” or “over easy” so you can dip your toast in the yolk?
9. Do you let your grandchildren lick the spoon as you make home made cookies with them? No?
10. Didn’t you enjoy licking the beaters as a child when Mom made cookies?
11. Do you eat your bologna and other cold cuts of meat uncooked? Or do you cook to, and I quote from CDC’s web site, “an internal temperature of 165 degrees F” as the CDC recommends (And if so, tell me how to measure the internal temp of a slice of bologna)
12. Do you serve up a grilled hot dog to your grandkids without first checking the internal temperature as recommended by the CDC?
13. Do you eat raw peanut butter and sprouts? I know we should rinse our leafy veggies, but how do you rinse off peanut butter? And can you really effectively rinse off sprouts, grown in a perfect environment to grow bacteria?
14. Have you ever eaten “tiger meat” or what ever you called raw ground beef when growing up?
If you answered “No” to all questions, I feel very sorry for you. But seriously, unless you answered, “NO” to all the questions above, how could you still say, “Just cook it” when you only selectively “cook it”? And when you did answer  “NO”, is that the same answer you would have given 20 or 30 years ago?
The contamination rate of meat and poultry has changed as the production process has changed. You cannot place all the blame on the consumer because of these changes brought about to mass-produced food. The average consumer, more often than not, is NOT in control of the cooking of their food.
So tell me, what was your score on the quiz? I can’t wait to hear.