Understanding the Food Safety of Homemade Jerky

Jerky is a snack known at least since ancient Egyptian times. In early times, humans made beef jerky from animals that were too large to eat all at once, such as bears, buffalo, or even whales. North American Indians mixed ground beef jerky with dried fruit or suet to make “pemmican.” “Biltong” is actually a dried meat made in many African countries. Our word “jerky” came from the Spanish word “jerky”.

Jerky is a product that is nutrient-dense meat that has been made light by removing moisture through drying. A pound of meat or poultry weighs about four ounces after being made into jerky (most manufacturers will add sugar, spices, and other elements to help make up for this). Due to the fact that moisture is removed to “safe levels”, the product is considered shelf stable. It can be stored without refrigeration, making it a useful food for backpackers and others who don’t have access to refrigerators.

With commercially manufactured jerky products, the process is monitored in federally inspected plants by inspectors from the US Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service. Products may be cured or uncured, dried, and may be smoked or non-smoked, air-dried or oven-dried. In commercial plants, both internal meat temperatures and water activity percentages (among other things) are continuously monitored and validated to regulate processes and ensure quality products that are safe for consumers.

When raw meat or poultry is dehydrated at home, usually in a slightly open warm oven or food dehydrator, you should understand that it is possible to make jerky that will store on the shelf, but pathogenic bacteria are likely to survive. . the dry heat of a warm oven and especially the 130 to 140°F of a typical inexpensive food dehydrator. This means that if you bought meat that was contaminated or somehow had something within your process that was contaminated that you put into the meat, you would have a high chance that your finished product was contaminated at the end of the dehydration process. If the meat is not contaminated and you proceed normally, you won’t have any problems.

Illnesses due to Salmonella and E. coli from homemade jerky continue to raise questions about the safety of traditional drying methods for making venison and jerky. The current USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline recommendation for safely making jerky is to heat meat to 160°F and poultry to 165°F before beginning the dehydration process. This step ensures that any bacteria present will be destroyed by the moist heat. Most dehydrator instructions do not include this step, and a dehydrator will not reach temperatures high enough to heat meat to 160°F. After heating, it is important to maintain a constant dehydrator temperature of 130 to 140°F during the drying process because the process must be fast enough to dry the food before it spoils, and it must remove enough water so that microorganisms cannot grow.

The risk of dehydrating meat and poultry without first cooking it to a safe temperature is that the dehydrator will not heat meat to 160°F or poultry to 165°F (temperatures at which bacteria are destroyed) before they are dry. After drying, the bacteria become much more resistant to heat. Inside a dehydrator or low temperature oven, the evaporating moisture absorbs most of the heat. Therefore, the meat itself does not begin to rise in temperature until most of the moisture has evaporated. Therefore, when the temperature of the jerky finally begins to rise, the bacteria have become more resistant to heat and are more likely to survive. If these surviving bacteria are pathogenic, they can cause foodborne illness to those who eat jerky. If you must make beef jerky at home, here are some recommendations directly from the USDA to help ensure your protection:

1) Always wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water before and after working with meat products.

2) Use clean equipment and utensils.

3) Keep meat and poultry at or slightly below 40°F; use or freeze ground meat and poultry within 2 days; whole red meats, within 3 to 5 days.

4) Thaw frozen meat in the refrigerator, not on the kitchen counter.

5) Marinate the meat in the refrigerator. Do not reuse the pickles. Using brine will help keep the meat moist as you try to reach 160°F or 165°F as described below.

6) Steam or roast meat to 160°F and poultry to 165°F, as measured with a food thermometer, before dehydrating.

7) Dry meats in a food dehydrator that has an adjustable temperature dial and maintains a temperature of at least 130-140°F throughout the drying process.

There are other special considerations when making homemade jerky from venison or other wild game that are also worth mentioning. Wild game meat is not regulated or reviewed by the USDA prior to processing. Deer can also, in some cases, be heavily contaminated with fecal bacteria, which is directly related to the degree of variation with hunter skill, wound location, and other factors. While fresh beef is usually cooled quickly, venison carcasses are usually kept at room temperature (whatever the outside temperature is at the time of slaughter), which could allow bacteria to multiply. Achieving internal meat temperatures of 160°F with wild game meat is even more important as the risk of contamination is definitely higher.

So what kind of “insurance” do you need for your homemade beef jerky adventures? It really depends on you.