#Could You Freeze Meat To Kill All The Bacteria?

Can meat be frozen to a temperature where it’s safe to eat?

Freezing Meat & Cooking Meat Isn’t The Same

You couldn’t freeze meat to a temperature to kill the living bacteria.

All cold does to bacteria is prevent it from growing. HEAT is the only way to kill bacteria.

However, by freezing the meat, you won’t have any parasites or worms, as all of them would be done for. This is exactly how raw fish is treated to make it safe for raw consumption in sushi/sashimi.

Can Raw Meat Be Completely Safe?

It’s still possible to eat raw meat relatively safely, at least in beef.

Beef is a red meat, considered to be too dense for bacteria to do more than cover the surface area as opposed to penetrating the meat itself.

If you get your beef from a butcher from the same steer, and make sure that all of your tools and surfaces are sanitized from bacteria, then E.coli and salmonella wouldn’t be a problem.

Why Is E.coli & Salmonella Found In Beef Products?

Now, you’re probably asking why are there so many e.coli and salmonella outbreaks with beef.

As stated previously, the bacteria can only cover the surface area of beef because of its density, but ground beef is exposed to the open air when it’s ground for packaging.

This increases the surface area of the meat drastically and leads to a greater exposed surface area.

The same problem happens with minute steaks that are tenderized with industrial tenderizers that put thousands of little needles into the meat.

The needles knock in holes into the meat, creating much more surface area for the meat to be exposed to the bacteria.

What if a few of those needles had bacteria on it when they’re inserted the bacteria into the meat holes?

Conclusion

If your goal is to be sure everything is safe, be sure you get your beef from the same butcher, and then do the smaller cuts, grinding, and patty-making yourself.

But really, it’ll be way easier to just let a professional serve it to you.