Ok, I have a question for the food safety gurus out here.
The USDA food safety charts show that eat which is brought to 140* throughout the mass of the meat is safely pasturized after being held for 12 minutes at 140 degrees.
I've been making ground beef jerky in the dehydrator a lot lately. I dry it at 140 degrees for about 5 to 7 hours depending on the amount of meat, local humidity conditions, thickness of the meat, etc... Thermapen confirms air temp in the dehydrator is 140* or higher (it's an analog dial temp setting). So I'm greatly exceeding the 12 minutes in the USDA chart. I also use cure #1 in the liquid marinade that is mixed in the meat 24 hours before drying (plus the meat is reaching 140* well before the 4 hour window is up). Sticks are not in casings and are 3/8" thick or slightly thinner (using 3/8" LEM tube on stuffer to make 6 to 7" long sticks to put on the dehydrator trays - using LEM 10 tray dehydrator).
So in essence, short of the GB jerky being broken open, the interior of the meat is both cured and pasturized, correct? I also spritz with a potassium sorbate solution before storage to inhibit the possibility of mold growth on the exterior of the sticks. I've been keeping these for up to 3 weeks at room temp without the potassium sorbate without any problems. I recently added this as I'm making larger batches now and the cost is minimal to add another layer of protection from future problems as I plan on vacuum sealing most of the batch for later use.
Or have I totally missed the point of the pasturization time & temp chart?
The USDA food safety charts show that eat which is brought to 140* throughout the mass of the meat is safely pasturized after being held for 12 minutes at 140 degrees.
Code:
Minimum Internal Minimum processing time in Temperature minutes or seconds after minimum temperature is reached Degrees Degrees 6.5-log10 7-log10 Fahrenheit Centigrade Lethality Lethality 130 54.4 112 min. 121 min. 131 55.0 89 min. 97 min. 132 55.6 71 min. 77 min. 133 56.1 56 min. 62 min. 134 56.7 45 min. 47 min. 135 57.2 36 min. 37 min. 136 57.8 28 min. 32 min. 137 58.4 23 min. 24 min. 138 58.9 18 min. 19 min. 139 59.5 15 min. 15 min. 140 60.0 12 min. 12 min. 141 60.6 9 min. 10 min. 142 61.1 8 min. 8 min. 143 61.7 6 min. 6 min. 144 62.2 5 min. 5 min. 145 62.8 4 min.* 4 min.*
So in essence, short of the GB jerky being broken open, the interior of the meat is both cured and pasturized, correct? I also spritz with a potassium sorbate solution before storage to inhibit the possibility of mold growth on the exterior of the sticks. I've been keeping these for up to 3 weeks at room temp without the potassium sorbate without any problems. I recently added this as I'm making larger batches now and the cost is minimal to add another layer of protection from future problems as I plan on vacuum sealing most of the batch for later use.
Or have I totally missed the point of the pasturization time & temp chart?
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