Why does pork turn pink when cooked

Beef tenderloin, which is often cut into medallions to make filet mignon and beef tournedos, has a similar texture. As a trade-off, it cooks quickly and readily absorbs marinades and seasonings. The USDA once recommended cooking pork until it reached an internal temperature of degrees Fahrenheit.

At these temperatures, the meat is completely opaque and, yes, somewhat gray in the center. This resulted in generations of diners believing that pork was underdone if there was any pink meat visible at all.

To be fair, these fears were not unfounded at the time. Uncooked pork can harbor trichinosis, a parasite that causes serious illness when consumed. These days, the risk of contracting trichinosis is extremely minimal. Eating raw pork can still put you at risk of contracting illness from E. This rule was officially changed in , and it was an eye-opener for many home chefs. However, be sure to remove it from the heat as soon as the temperature reaches degrees.

If you leave it on any longer, the meat will be overcooked and dry see How to Tell When Pork is Done, below. When buying pork tenderloin, look for meat that has a glossy pink exterior. However, infection is now relatively rare. During —, 15 cases were reported per year on average. The USDA says it's now safe to eat pork closer to rare. Until recently, the government has said that pork should be cooked to an internal temperature of Medium- rare pork is more succulent, tender, and flavorful than its well-done counterpart.

This cooks pork to medium as opposed to well-done. A pork loin cooked to F might look a little bit pink in the middle, but that's perfectly all right. Beef that has gone bad will develop a slimy or sticky texture and smell bad or "off.

Don't taste meat to determine if it's safe to eat or not. Call the USDA's hotline. The "bend test" is an easy way to know when the ribs are ready to eat.

The ribs are done when you lift a rack of ribs at one end, bone side up, and the rack bends so easily in the middle that the meat tears open. When meat is fresh and protected from contact with air such as in vacuum packages , it has the purple -red color that comes from myoglobin, one of the two key pigments responsible for the color of meat.

When exposed to air, myoglobin forms the pigment, oxymyoglobin, which gives meat a pleasingly cherry-red color. Why does pork turn pink when cooked? Category: food and drink barbecues and grilling. Although hemoglobin often comes to mind when thinking about red color in meat, myoglobin plays a much more significant role in meat color.

Can you eat pork if it's pink in the middle? Can you get food poisoning from pork? Pork is well known for being one of the WORST meats with potential disease and parasite ridden issues.

Next so called "chefs", laugh with me, will be saying you can eat chicken raw. If you tell me it's better now than 20 years ago I'd call you an outright liar. I wouldn't touch a piece of pork done at degrees if it was the last piece of food in the world. Wow, folks are downright argumentative and weird. Eat some really bad food then, go on!! So many sources will tell you exactly what Alanna has said here. My boyfriend who loves to char everything to a crisp before he eats it looked at me like I was crazy.

I offered to cook his a little more so it would make him feel better. He reluctantly ate it all the while picking at it. I loved it though and was so proud of myself for not producing shoe leather. Maybe in the future we will find a happy medium. Leaving the pink for the cow, personally. As you say, old habits are hard to break, and I actually KNEW someone who got trichinosis — it was not just a fever, stomach upset thing. It Involved worms. Lots of them. I won't elaborate.

However, I thought I didn't like pork at all until I discovered that you don't have to cook it to death it's already dead. I have two tenderloins I'm going to sear and roast, and I think will be OK. As I live at high altitude 7, feet , cooking can be a game of chance, and resting times are almost silly because food NEVER arrives hot on the plate.

Off to experiment, but not with pink. I'll leave that for the carpaccio. My thermometer can read and if I see pink I will still think it's not done and not believe myself that it's safe to eat. So I let it cook a little bit longer get a little bit darker and they're still paying but its like so I force myself to eat it anyway and still worry about it.

I agree with you Alanna! I believe that it is safe if the USDA says it is safe. When I first started cooking "pink" pork, it was a little scary. The very first time I cooked to , my boyfriend and I poked at the tenderloin medallions and debated about whether we should eat them for a good 5 minutes and ended up microwaving it for a few more minutes until it looked more "done". After that, I did some more research and finally we tried it "pink". It is SO much more tender and juicy this way, we absolutely love it.

We eat tenderloin cooked to about once a month, and always end up wondering why we don't eat it more often. I have cooked spare ribs soup and boil it for a while until tender and the color is still pink inside.

The short answer is -- pink color is NOT an indication of anything being wrong with the meat or how the animal was fed. Hope this helps! How was the soup?! To anynomus pork is raised different today pork tenderloin is excellent pink inside. To anonymous pigs are raised different today when you cook pork tenderloin pink inside it has a better flavor. I like it grey The chops I cooked tonight were in the s and still slightly pink I'm old school and always had a problem with that "undercooked pork" mentality.

Trichinosis is a food-borne illness that is caused by eating raw or undercooked meats, particularly pork products infested with a particular worm. Typical symptoms include abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever, chills and headaches. It looks pretty good… there are nice grill marks, the outside of the meat is white and looks fully cooked. And when you take the internal temperature with a digital thermometer, it is just barely at degrees Fahrenheit. Use a meat thermometer to ensure that the meat is thoroughly cooked.

Freeze pork. Freezing pork that is less than six inches thick for three weeks will kill parasites.