Serious Eats
Did Your Microwave Nuke the Bacteria in Your Frozen Dinner? It Depends
I'm not usually all that skittish when it comes to food safety (I do stay away from frozen boxed hamburger on principle), but when I read in the New York Times about people very likely contracting salmonella from eating frozen food that hadn't been microwaved long enough, I got very scared.
According to the story, a 19-month-old baby girl became "so violently ill after eating a Banquet chicken pot pie she passed out and had a seizure, a 104-degree fever, and nearly constant diarrhea" (she had diarrhea for six weeks before she fully recovered). She was not alone. "According to the Centers for Disease Control," the story continues, "165 people in 31 states have become ill with the same strain of salmonella, with the Banquet pies being the likely source."
Why did they get sick? Some of the victims didn't zap their food long enough. Amazingly, Banquet's owner, ConAgra foods, initially tried to put the blame squarely on the victims.
The rest of the story after the jump.
This is what ConAgra initially said: "The company believes the issue is likely related to consumer undercooking of the product. The cooking instructions for these products are specifically designed to eliminate the presence of common pathogens found in many uncooked products."
This explanation doesn't pass any basic smell test. Microwave cook times are based on consumers knowing how powerful their microwaves are compared with others. Very few of us do. I know I don't.
Take a trip to the grocery store and check out microwave cooking instructions for frozen meals. You'll find they all say that cooking times might have to be adjusted because microwave ovens vary. Not only that, but I found that cooking times for similar products can vary widely. This is scary stuff.
ConAgra announced on Thursday that it was recalling all of the Banquet pot pies. It also acknowledged the cooking instructions could be improved.
So I'm going to nuke the hell out of the box of eggplant parm (not made by ConAgra) I have sitting in my freezer. Better yet, I'm going to retreat to the safer confines of my outmoded but safe conventional oven. I know the ultimate answer is not eating any frozen processed food, but sometimes a frozen box of mac and cheese really hits the spot.