Food Protection Trends - February 2009 - 77

Copyright© 2009, International Association for Food Protection 6200 Aurora Ave., Suite 200W, Des Moines, IA 50322-2864 Food Protection Trends, Vol. 29, No. 2, Pages 77–79 Cooking Food Safely with Microwave Ovens: Challenges for the Food Industry JOHN T. ALLAN American Frozen Food Institute, 2000 Corporate Ridge, Suite 1000, McLean, VA 22102, USA SUMMARY INTRODUCTION As one can clearly see by walking through the refrigerated and frozen food aisles in any grocery store today, “convenience is king,” and one can find a wide variety of choices on display—packaged and microwave-ready. Despite a strong safety record, frozen and refrigerated microwavable foods have had problems associated with cooking instructions over the past few decades. Many in the ready-to-eat (RTE) food industry are likely aware that packaged food is not necessarily pathogen-free and that cooking instructions and safety precautions are provided on these foods for good reason. However, not all consumers know this, and the tools they have at their disposal to help them cook foods properly—their microwave oven and the labeled cooking instructions on the food—may not always work together to meet this objective. Microwave ovens have become ubiquitous in home kitchens across the United States, with over 90 percent of homes having at least one unit. Microwave use is so widespread that it is almost a standard practice for manufacturers to place microwave cooking instructions on their product packaging. In the past two decades, advancements in food formulation, processing and packaging have greatly improved the quality and convenience and widened the selection of microwaveable foods available to consumers; however, the microwavable food industry still faces the challenge of ensuring that consumers properly cook not ready-to-eat (NRTE) foods to reduce the risk of undercooked, potentially hazardous food being consumed. In the past year, several important steps have been taken by the industry to help address these challenges, including the development of voluntary industry guidelines on both effective labeling and validation of microwave cooking instructions, and there is yet more progress to be made over the coming years. The MICROWAve COOkINg DIleMMA Unlike RTE food products, which are safe to consume in the form in which they are purchased by consumers (e.g., fully-cooked sandwich meats, cured meats, and canned food), not readyto-eat (NRTE) products (e.g., frozen dinners and raw meat/poultry) often require further cooking by consumers to ensure safety, as they may contain raw or partially-cooked ingredients that could potentially contain pathogens. Most NRTE frozen or refrigerated foods sold FEBRUARY 2009 | FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS A peer-reviewed article *Author for correspondence: Phone: 703.821.0770; Fax: 703.821.1350 E-mail: jallan@affi.com 77
Food Protection Trends - February 2009

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