YetiDave wrote:Bacteria mixed through the meat 2 hours before it's cooked vs bacteria being mixed through the meat a week before it's cooked. Bare in mind it's only potential bacteria, it's not always gonna be contaminated. But by grinding ahead of time you're also massively increasing the surface area of the meat, risking further contamination... Just seems to make sense!
But the ground meat should have been kept in adequately temperature controlled environment and handled by people who are food safety aware on premises that are inspected by environmental health officers. So the opportunities for the bacteria inside the mince to increase should be minimal. If you don't trust your butchers hygiene don't buy from them. It's also worth keeping in mind that your average home mincer is a bit underpowered, is operated in non temperature controlled conditions and will often have the effect of warming the meat up. It's all about personal choice and I agree it is potential bacteria rather than actual but I personally wouldn't bring ground meat up to room temp before cooking it. Don't forget that the recommendation for storing uncooked meat at above chilled temps is something like 4 hours. That 4 hours though includes all the time since the meat was butchered to when it is cooked so includes time at the butchers, transport time etc. etc.
Anyway I guess food hygiene is a separate thread in its own right. Looks like the Op is doing fine from a grilling point of view
by RobinC » 02 Jun 2014, 11:11 