Originally Posted by
alix2.0
http:///forum/post/2899167
so fish dont contain harmful bacteria. thats all i was asking.
right. sooooo.... you can eat raw meat, as long as the meat was handled carefully and kept very cold and very clean, it's actually quite safe and quite fine to eat raw; there is a well known korean dish that includes raw meat with a fresh egg broken over it.
The concern comes in when the temperature goes above a certain point (40f), at which harmful bacteria begin to thrive and break down and decompose the meat; namely ecoli and other germies (including fungii) that can give us food poisoning.
the bacteria is generally a problem only AFTER the meat is harvested; generally we're not concerned about bacteria in living animals; there we're more concerned about parasites; which is really why you should still take every precaution and cook things as thoroughly as possible before eating them.
The trouble is, most meat is simply not handled as carefully as it needs to be once it's harvested in order to be safely eaten raw - ESPECIALLY ground meat; do not, EVER, eat raw or undercooked ground meat; whatever was on the surface of the meat has been ground up and innoculated throughout the entire mass of the protein, so now you can't even hope to wash some ickiness off and get away with eating it a little pink inside; as you can do with steak.
when you're dealing with pork, however, there are other concerns... pigs contract different and additional parasites & diseases from beef/venison/sheep, so it really needs to be cleaned thoroughly and cooked all the way through before you eat it, whether it's ground meat or not.
...same thing with poultry.
as for fish, sushi grade fish is superfresh and handled (well, we HOPE it's handled...) with super high standards and kept at low temperatures to prevent the decay of the flesh before it reaches your plate and your mouth.
A helpful tip; if you go to a sushi restaurant and it SMELLS like fish in there, TURN AROUND AND LEAVE. Truly fresh, truly sushi grade fish does not smell like fish AT ALL.
and kudos 2u 4 asking questions. if u don't ask, u don't know.
