question: If boiling something for a few minutes is effective at disinfecting it, why can’t we safely eat spoiled meat, as long as it’s cooked at high temperatures?
comment: You can kill the bugs but you don't necessarily destroy the toxic chemicals that they've already produced by their metabolic processes. On of the most poisonous substances is the toxic protein produced by the bacterium Clostridium Botulinum. In minuscule doses under the name Botox, it is used to paralyze facial muscles.
passages: The most reliable way to kill microbial pathogenic agents is to heat water to a rolling boil. Other techniques, such as varying forms of filtration, chemical disinfection, and exposure to ultraviolet radiation (including solar UV) have been demonstrated in an array of randomized control trials to significantly reduce levels of waterborne disease among users in low-income countries.
   Food safety depends on the safe preparation, handling, and storage of food. Food spoilage bacteria proliferate in the "Danger zone" temperature range from , food therefore should not be stored in this temperature range. Washing of hands and surfaces, especially when handling different meats, and keeping raw food separate from cooked food to avoid cross-contamination, are good practices in food preparation. Foods prepared on plastic cutting boards may be less likely to harbor bacteria than wooden ones. Washing and disinfecting cutting boards, especially after use with raw meat, poultry, or seafood, reduces the risk of contamination.
   Boiling is not always necessary nor sometimes enough. Pasteurization where "enough" pathogens are killed typically occurs at 63 °C for 30 minutes or 72 °C for 15 seconds. Certain pathogens must be heated above boiling (e.g. botulism"Clostridium botulinum" requires , most endospores require , and prions even higher). Higher temperatures may be achieved with a pressure cooker. Heat combined with ultraviolet light (UV), such as sodis method, reduces the necessary temperature and duration.
  
  Section::::Techniques.:Filtration.
   Food safety is a major focus of food microbiology. Numerous agents of disease, pathogens, are readily transmitted via food, including bacteria, and viruses. Microbial toxins are also possible contaminants of food. However, microorganisms and their products can also be used to combat these pathogenic microbes. Probiotic bacteria, including those that produce bacteriocins, can kill and inhibit pathogens. Alternatively, purified bacteriocins such as nisin can be added directly to food products. Finally, bacteriophages, viruses that only infect bacteria, can be used to kill bacterial pathogens. Thorough preparation of food, including proper cooking, eliminates most bacteria and viruses. However, "toxins produced" by contaminants may not be liable to change to non-toxic forms by heating or cooking the contaminated food due to other safety conditions.
   Several bacteria, such as E. coli, Clostridium botulinum, and Salmonella enterica, are well-known and are targeted for elimination via various industrial processes. Though bacteria are often the focus of food safety processes, viruses, protozoa, and molds are also known to cause food-borne illness and are of concern when designing processes to ensure food safety. Although the goal of food safety is to eliminate harmful organisms from food and prevent food-borne illness, detecting said organisms is another important function of food safety mechanisms.
  
  Section::::Food safety.:Monitoring and detection.
   As these microorganisms colonize a piece of meat, they begin to break it down, leaving behind toxins that can cause enteritis or food poisoning, potentially lethal in the rare case of botulism. The microorganisms do not survive a thorough cooking of the meat, but several of their toxins and microbial spores do. The microbes may also infect the person eating the meat, although against this the microflora of the human gut is normally an effective barrier.
  
  Section::::Testing.
   In emergency situations when conventional treatment systems have been compromised, waterborne pathogens may be killed or inactivated by boiling but this requires abundant sources of fuel, and can be very onerous on consumers, especially where it is difficult to store boiled water in sterile conditions. Other techniques, such as filtration, chemical disinfection, and exposure to ultraviolet radiation (including solar UV) have been demonstrated in an array of randomized control trials to significantly reduce levels of water-borne disease among users in low-income countries, but these suffer from the same problems as boiling methods.
   There are many federal laws and programs in place to attempt to lower the rates of food borne infection. They cover a wide variety of issues, including regulation of meat production (with specific quality standards) and programs to help educate the public about food safety. One such program, The National Food Safety Initiative (FSI) was launched in 1997 and focused on “improving data on pathogens, coordinating regulatory responses, consumer educational efforts and behavioral surveillance.” Industry efforts to lessen the spread of disease include milk pasteurization, “sanitary controls” on farms, and the development of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP). The Critical Control Point, or CCP, according to a study published in the "Journal of Food Safety" in 2004, is “a point, step, or procedure in a food process at which control can be applied, and as a result, a food safety hazard can be prevented, eliminated, or reduced to acceptable levels.” Food “processors must use CCP critical limits that have been scientifically validated” to prevent the growth of pathogens. Specifically for meat, since pathogens grow in warmer temperatures, the CCP is related to the time and temperature meat is allowed to remain. As of 2004, the maximum “regulatory limit” for poultry during production was 13 degrees Celsius.
   Techniques that help prevent food borne illness in the kitchen are hand washing, rinsing produce, preventing cross-contamination, proper storage, and maintaining cooking temperatures. In general, freezing or refrigerating prevents virtually all bacteria from growing, and heating food sufficiently kills parasites, viruses, and most bacteria. Bacteria grow most rapidly at the range of temperatures between , called the "danger zone". Storing food below or above the "danger zone" can effectively limit the production of toxins. For storing leftovers, the food must be put in shallow containers
   "C. botulinum" is an obligate anaerobe that is widely distributed in nature and is assumed to be present on all food surfaces. Its optimum growth temperature is within the mesophilic range. In spore form, it is the most heat resistant pathogen that can survive in low acid foods and grow to produce toxin. The toxin attacks the nervous system and will kill an adult at a dose of around 75 ng. This toxin is detoxified by holding food at 100 °C for 10 minutes.
   Other, much rarer sources of infection (about every decade in the US) include garlic or herbs stored covered in oil without acidification, chili peppers, improperly handled baked potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil, tomatoes, and home-canned or fermented fish.
  
  When canning or preserving food at home, attention should be paid to hygiene, pressure, temperature, refrigeration and storage. When making home preserves, only acidic fruit such as apples, pears, stone fruits and berries should be bottled. Tropical fruit and tomatoes are low in acidity and must have some acidity added before they are bottled.
   Extreme temperatures destroy viruses and vegetative cells that are active and metabolising. Organic molecules such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipid and nucleic acids, as well as cell walls and membranes, all of which play important roles in cell metabolism, are damaged by excessive heat. Food for human consumption is routinely heated by baking, boiling and frying to temperatures which destroy most pathogens. Thermal processes often cause undesirable changes in the texture, appearance and nutritional value of foods. Autoclaves generate steam at higher than boiling point and are used to sterilise laboratory glassware, surgical instruments, and, in a growing industry, medical waste. A danger inherent in using high temperatures to destroy microbes, is their incomplete destruction through inadequate procedures with a consequent risk of producing pathogens resistant to heat.
   Approximately 500,000 tons of food items are irradiated per year worldwide in over 40 countries. These are mainly spices and condiments, with an increasing segment of fresh fruit irradiated for fruit fly quarantine.
  
  Section::::Modern industrial techniques.:Pulsed electric field electroporation.
   BULLET::::- "All mushrooms are safe if cooked/parboiled/dried/pickled/etc." – While it is true that some otherwise-inedible species can be rendered safe by special preparation, many toxic species cannot be made toxin-free. Many fungal toxins are not particularly sensitive to heat and so are not broken down during cooking; in particular, α-amanitin, the poison produced by the death cap ("Amanita phalloides") and others of the genus, is not denatured by heat.
   Section::::Prevention.
  
  Although the vegetative form of the bacteria is destroyed by boiling, the spore itself is not killed by the temperatures reached with normal sea-level-pressure boiling, leaving it free to grow and again produce the toxin when conditions are right.
  
  A recommended prevention measure for infant botulism is to avoid giving honey to infants less than 12 months of age, as botulinum spores are often present. In older children and adults the normal intestinal bacteria suppress development of "C. botulinum".
   Well water for personal use is often filtered with reverse osmosis water processors; this process can remove very small particles. A simple, effective way of killing microorganisms is to bring the water to a full boil for one to three minutes, depending on location. A household well contaminated by microorganisms can initially be treated by shock chlorination using bleach, generating concentrations hundreds of times greater than found in community water systems; however, this will not fix any structural problems that led to the contamination and generally requires some expertise and testing for effective application.
   Section::::Techniques.:Other chemical disinfection additives.:Hydrogen peroxide.
  
  One recent study has found that the wild Salmonella which would reproduce quickly during subsequent dark storage of solar-disinfected water could be controlled by the addition of just 10 parts per million of hydrogen peroxide.
  
  Section::::Techniques.:Ultraviolet purification.
   Oxidation reduction potential (ORP) can be used for water system monitoring with the benefit of a single-value measure of the disinfection potential, showing the activity of the disinfectant rather than the applied dose. For example, "E. coli", "Salmonella", "Listeria" and other pathogens have survival times of under 30 s when the ORP is above 665 mV, compared against 300 s when it is below 485 mV.
  
  A study was conducted comparing traditional parts per million chlorination reading and ORP in Hennepin County, Minnesota. The results of this study argue for the inclusion of ORP above 650mV in local health codes.
   A "mouse protection" or "mouse bioassay" test determines the type of "C. botulinum" toxin present using monoclonal antibodies. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with digoxigenin-labeled antibodies can also be used to detect the toxin, and quantitative PCR can detect the toxin genes in the organism.
  
  Section::::Growth conditions and prevention.
  
  "C. botulinum" is a soil bacterium. The spores can survive in most environments and are very hard to kill. They can survive the temperature of boiling water at sea level, thus many foods are canned with a pressurized boil that achieves even higher temperatures, sufficient to kill the spores.
   BULLET::::- All meat (including pork) can be safely prepared by cooking to an internal temperature of or higher for 15 seconds or more.
  
  BULLET::::- Wild game: Wild game meat must be cooked thoroughly (see meat preparation above) Freezing wild game does not kill all trichinosis larval worms, because the worm species that typically infests wild game can resist freezing.
   Food can transmit pathogens which can result in the illness or death of the person or other animals. The main mediums are bacteria, viruses, mold, and fungus (which is Latin for mushroom). It can also serve as a growth and reproductive medium for pathogens. In developed countries there are intricate standards for food preparation, whereas in lesser developed countries there are fewer standards and less enforcement of those standards. Another main issue is simply the availability of adequate safe water, which is usually a critical item in the spreading of diseases. In theory, food poisoning is 100% preventable. However this cannot be achieved due to the number of persons involved in the supply chain, as well as the fact that pathogens can be introduced into foods no matter how many precautions are taken.
   There are a variety of methods used to detect and kill pathogens. The most effective, as expected, is to cook the meat to a high enough temperature to kill all growth, but meat can be re-contaminated during any step of the food production process, especially if workers handle both raw and cooked products. The risk of disease from a ready-to-eat (RTE) product such as chicken nuggets is significantly higher due to the fact that many consumers do not re-cook them, believing them to be safe. "E." coli, "Salmonella" and "Shigella" have all been found in RTE products. A study of working practices in shops selling raw meats (including butcher’s shops, supermarkets and general stores) published in the "Journal of Hygiene", found pathogens on slicing machines, wiping cloths, worker’s hands, towels, and nail brushes. This facilitated the contamination of already cooked meats. This example shows the need of a method of detection. The traditional method is based on using cultures examined under a microscope, which is time-consuming. A method tested in 2005 in a study published in "Meat Science", is called multiplex PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) and is based on the analyzing of nucleic acid and had promising results.
   In the foregoing, there was mention of bacteria contaminating foods that cause infection in or from the digestive tract. Other food-borne bacteria can cause disease by producing toxins. It is no longer about infection, but toxication. Among these bacteria, some synthesize a toxin only when their concentration in the food before ingestion exceeds a threshold. This is the case of Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus, for example. The concept of MID does not apply to them, but there is indeed a concentration (not a dose) below which they do not constitute a danger to the health of the consumers.
  
  Section::::References.
   The elimination of micro-organisms by boiling follows first-order kinetics—at high temperatures, it is achieved in less time and at lower temperatures, in more time. The heat sensitivity of micro-organisms varies, at , Giardia species (causes Giardiasis) can take ten minutes for complete inactivation, most intestine affecting microbes and "E. coli" (gastroenteritis) take less than a minute; at boiling point, "Vibrio cholerae" (cholera) takes ten seconds and hepatitis A virus (causes the symptom of jaundice), one minute. Boiling does not ensure the elimination of all micro-organisms; the bacterial spores Clostridium can survive at but are not water-borne or intestine affecting. Thus for human health, complete sterilization of water is not required.
   The spores require warm temperatures, a protein source, an anaerobic environment, and moisture in order to become active and produce toxin. In the wild, decomposing vegetation and invertebrates combined with warm temperatures can provide ideal conditions for the botulism bacteria to activate and produce toxin that may affect feeding birds and other animals. Spores are not killed by boiling, but botulism is uncommon because special, rarely obtained conditions are necessary for botulinum toxin production from C. botulinum spores, including an anaerobic, low-salt, low-acid, low-sugar environment at ambient temperatures.
  
raw_presuppositions: Boiling spoiled meat would be enough to disinfect it. You can disinfect spoiled meat by cooking it at high temperatures.
raw_corrections: Boiling spoiled meat would not do anything to destroy the toxic chemicals produced by the bugs in spoiled meat. Cooking spoiled meat can kill the bugs but may not destroy the toxic chemicals left behind by the bugs.