Is hunting making you sick?

If you don’t handle your fresh kill properly at the time of transportation, you may have dangerous bacteria hitching a ride with you straight to your home and family.

Cooking food well will kill the bacteria and then the food is safe, right?
Wrong! While cooking food does kill the bacteria, we can also get sick from the toxins the bacteria created while they were alive and cooking doesn’t help.

Cleaning the food surface areas frequently will prevent the bacteria from growing, right?
Wrong. Wiping surface areas frequently may do more in spreading the bacteria rather than killing them.

What is food safety?
Unfortunately, some people confuse food safety with cleanliness or meat ‘doneness’. While both play a part in food safety, neither play a major role. One thing we must understand is that live bacteria and the toxins they can leave behind can make us sick.

How do we control bacteria?
The first thing we need to know is that bacteria do not die in the refrigerator. Refrigeration only slows its growth and must be below 15C. Heat, about 60C, does kill bacteria, but it does not destroy the toxins. So, as a general rule, you should toss out any meat if its surface temperature may have remained in the danger zone (between 15 and 60C) for more than two hours, unless you have done something to kill the bacteria or inhibit its actions.

Some other things that kill bacteria are drying it out or using chlorine or other disinfectants, salt, sunlight, sugar and smoke. It is important to understand these things because we would never be able to make ham or beef jerky if we didn’t. It is also important to understand that bacteria is generally a surface thing, so while the outside surface of the food may not be safe, the inside may be. More importantly, is the fact that grinding meat into mince for hamburger or sausage will take a few bacteria on the surface and spread them through the entire meat and give them more surface area to grow. That is why ground meat should be handled very carefully and the history of that meat considered in detail.

Below 15C bacteria continues to grow and food must get above 60C to kill it. However, heat does not remove the toxins that bacteria leave behind, if allowed to grow. Curing food with salt, sugar, smoke or drying will kill bacteria and brining is helpful in this regard. Think in terms of eliminating the contact with and killing as many bacteria as soon as possible and not doing things that will help spread it. We all have the potential to eat bacteria with our foods, but if bacteria is allowed to take hold and get deeper into meat of any kind, it will make you violently sick, which can be very dangerous for children or the elderly.

The preservation of meat in the outdoors or remote places has been a problem that has been experienced for many generations. Our ancestors and early pioneers dealt with the meat and bacteria problem in a very simple manner that did not involve any chemicals or modern refrigeration. They smoked or brined their meat or fish and removed any fluids by drying it before they stored it away. The preservative action of smoke acts as an effective antioxidant and bactericidal agent, as well as by providing a protective film on the surface of smoked products. The earlier you provide a barrier between available oxygen and fresh meat, the more chance you will have of eliminating the effects of toxin-causing bacteria.

It is not always easy, desirable or convenient to apply all these things when out in the bush on a hunt, but there are measures we can take that will stop bacteria getting onto any exposed flesh that we intend to bring home. There are a number of chemicals that will destroy micro-organisms; however, they are primarily only available to industry and their use is restricted by relevant government legislation (ethyl formate, sodium benzoate, sodium and calcium propionate, sodium nitrite, sorbic acid and sulfur dioxide for instance).

An all-natural Australian alternative that has previously only been available to commercial manufacturers and the meat industry is now available to the retail public. Syringol, the all-natural active antibacterial ingredient in smoke, can be sprayed on to exposed raw meat or the meat can be soaked in it. Andrea Prickett from Misty Gully Enterprises says, “Syringol provides an all-natural protective film on the meat, stopping the exposure to oxygen, which, in turn, stops the spread and growth of the bacteria. If the meat is treated early enough, the likelihood of contamination is reduced dramatically. Even though it is effectively Liquid Smoke, it has been modified to ensure that it will not change the taste of the meat. If you go to www.mistygully.com.au you will find a diagram that explains how Liquid Smoke is manufactured and more information on how smoke works to protect meat from bacteria.”

So it seems that there is a cost-effective, all-natural and easy way of limiting the exposure of our friends and family to dangerous toxin-causing bacteria. It is definitely something that we all need to keep in mind when responding to our hunter and gatherer instinct.

For more information, please contact Andrea Prickett at Misty Gully Enterprises on PO Box 66, Kallista, Victoria 3159, phone 0414 984 956, email andrea@mistygully.com.au or visit www.mistygully.com.au