Expert: Chris Manley - 6/3/2009

Question
I keep telling my husband that you can not put raw chicken on the same plate as raw beef.He thinks I'm crazy. Is it not true?
We went to a tapan restaurant the other night and a piece of raw chicken was touching my steak, I almost cancelled my dinner but did not. I got ill that night and I am convinced that it very well could have been caused from the contamination.What are the facts?

Answer
The answer depends on the temperature that the food is cooked to.  Chicken must be cooked to a temperature of 165 degrees to be considered safe, while beef steak can be cooked as low as 135 degrees and still be considered safe.  So, if the raw chicken and steak are touching each other on the plate, and the beef is cooked to 135-160 degrees, there is a chance that bacteria that had been present on the raw chicken would not be destroyed by cooking.

If the restaurant's practice is to cook all raw meats to greater than 165 degrees, there is little risk involved in placing both raw items on the same plate.  

Raw meats should always be separated to prevent cross-contamination.