Cooking Inoculated Pork in Microwave and Conventional Ovens1

High quality (grayish-pink, firm, and dry) and pale, soft, and exudative (P.S.E.), aseptic pork muscle tissue was individually inoculated with Bacillus subtilis, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, and Pseudomonas putrefaciens. These organisms were allowed to grow (48 h) in the pork tissue. The tissue was cooked by microwave and by conventional oven heating until internal temperatures of 60, 68, 77, 85 C were reached. Pork quality did not significantly affect bacterial destruction in this experiment. B. subtilis proved to be the most heat tolerant, L. mesenteroides intermediate. and P. putrefaciens the least in both cooking methods. Cooking temperature significantly reduced bacterial numbers and oven cooking was more effective at reducing percent survival than microwave for all three species.