6:30AM GMT 02 Dec 2011
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Chicken liver pâté as it should be, served here with mushrooms Photo: YUKI SUGIURA |
Chefs who purposefully undercook chicken or duck livers believing it can produce pâté that tastes better are putting diners at risk, they say.
Amateur cooks are also endangering family and friends at dinner parties by serving the dish in the manner, due in part to the trend for cooking meat less thoroughly than their parents might have done.
But the culinary trend of just searing the livers on the outside, leaving the insides pink, means a common type of bacteria that causes food poisoning is ending up on customers' plates.
Official figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) show the number of outbreaks of Campylobacter food poisoning caused by eating undercooked liver pâté has risen from three in 2008 to 14 last year.
So far this year there have been 14 outbreaks of Campylobacter food poisoning linked to eating out, 13 of which were caused by eating undercooked chicken or duck liver pâté, resulting in 366 people falling ill.
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Half of the outbreaks were caused by eating food at wedding receptions. One person at a reception had to be treated in hospital after eating contaminated pate.
Bob Martin, head of foodborne disease strategy at the Food Standards Agency (FSA), said: "Unfortunately, levels of Campylobacter in most raw chicken are high so it’s really important that chefs cook livers thoroughly to kill any bacteria, even if recipes call for them to be seared and left pink in the middle.
"The only way of ensuring the pâté or parfait will be safe to serve to your guests or customers is by cooking the livers the whole way through.
"Caterers should also follow good general hygiene practices when cooking and handling poultry livers, to avoid cross contamination with Campylobacter."
In total, the HPA reported 18 outbreaks of Campylobacter poisoning so far this year causing 443 people to fall ill.
Dr Christine Little, an expert in gastrointestinal infections at the HPA, said: "The increase in outbreaks which are due to the consumption of chicken liver pâté has been steadily increasing over the last few years.
"Not only is this dish popular in food recipe magazines it is being served in a variety of different catering venues.
"Illness occurs because the livers are only cooked until they are pink and inadequate cooking will not be sufficient to kill the bacteria. Both the public and the catering industry need to be aware that undercooking this product can result in food poisoning."
Xantha Clay, the food writer, said leaving livers very pink inside did nothing to improve the flavour or texture of a pâté.
"The unctuousness and lovely texture is not from the livers, it's from adding walloping amounts of butter and beating it to add air," she said.
But she added: "It would be difficult to cook chicken livers until they were entirely brown all the way through, and that's not really necessary."
However, she said chefs did not always know the difference between an uncooked "translucent" pink and a properly cooked "white-pink".
She continued: "Despite the fact that they get their food safety certificates, there's a surprising amount of ignorance about food safety and hygiene among professional chefs."
Palates had changed over time, she said, and it was now normal to cook meats a little rarer than in decades past.
"Traditionally, we have tended to cook our meat until it is brown all the way through, particularly due to anxieties about food poisoning that are sometimes misplaced," she said. "But clearly they are not misplaced in this case."
She also emphasised: "I would hate it if people were put off buying chicken livers as a result of this, because they are a cheap and delicious food if cooked properly."
Campylobacter is the most common cause of food poisoning, and the vast majority of cases are caused by home cooking.
There are roughly 600,000 cases annually in England and Wales. About half are caused by contaminated chicken. Figures from the FSA show about two-thirds of raw shop-bought chicken has the bacteria.
Common symptoms include stomach cramps and diarrhoea. Most people start to get better within two or three days and recover fully within a week.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8928264/Chicken-liver-pate-causing-hundreds-to-fall-ill.html
