Prevention

The best defense against trichinosis is proper food preparation. Follow these tips to avoid trichinosis:

• Avoid undercooked meat. Be sure to thoroughly cook cuts of meat until brown. Cook pork and meat from wild animals to an internal temperature of 160 F (71 C) throughout. For whole cuts and ground varieties of poultry, cook to a temperature of at least 165 F (74 C). Don't cut or eat the meat for at least three minutes after you've removed it from the heat.

  Use a meat thermometer to ensure that the meat is thoroughly cooked.

• Freeze pork. Freezing pork that is less than six inches thick for three weeks will kill parasites. However, trichinella parasites in wild-animal meat are not killed by freezing, even over a long period.
• Know that other processing methods don't kill parasites. Other methods of meat processing or preserving, such as smoking, curing and pickling, don't kill trichinella parasites in infected meat.
• Clean meat grinders thoroughly. If you grind your own meat, make sure the grinder is cleaned after each use.