In light of the Totino pizza e coli recall, isn't food safe if well cooked even if it has e coli?

Answer 1

Technically yes. E. coli is easily killed by properly cooking food. Unfortunately, people don't always properly cook and or handle their food.

Answer 2

Actually, yes, food that may be contaminated with E. coli can be made safe if you cook it thoroughly. Make sure it is heated above 140ºF, and that should be sufficient to kill any E. coli on it. After all, milk is pasteurized to kill off the E. coli that naturally gets into it, and that's what makes it safe for us to drink.

These foods tend to get recalled because people don't practice perfect food safety in their own homes. They wind up undercooking their microwavable foods and getting sick from them.

It's up to you to determine whether you'd prefer to try to cook the germs to death, or just return the product. The supermarkets would prefer not to take that chance, so they'll remove any product from the recalled lot.

Before I seem to lax in my standards, mind you some contaminations cannot be cooked out. Chemical contaminations can't be cooked away. Certain bacterial byproducts (Staph aureus, Bacillus cereus toxins and botulism) can't be cooked out, either.

So in this case, it's E. coli, and it can be killed with heat.

Answer 3

no safe eat Totino pizza e coli recall take cooked

Answer 4

I just wanted to say bless you gumdrop girl! We've eaten that pizza Thursday night, and I have been frantically looking for some ray of hope that we won't get sick!

Ours was cooked in a 450 oven for the recommended time, and left in for about 6 additional minutes as it wasn't quite brown and crispy enough -- it was even a tad burnt by the time we ate it. THANK GOD! So I feel I can quit worrying now. "whew"!

I looked everywhere on the web for what you just wrote, THANK YOU SO MUCH!