Why supermarkets are wrecking your Sunday roasts with dodgy cooking instructions that ruin your grub and leave it dry and rubbery
- Sunday roasts ruined by recommendations of unnecessarily long cooking times
You’ve slaved away all morning and followed the cooking instructions to the letter in pursuit of a perfect Sunday roast – only to find the meat is dry and rubbery.
Sound familiar? Well, you may not be to blame for the disappointing dinner.
Sunday roasts are being ruined by supermarkets recommending unnecessarily long cooking times to ensure food bugs are killed. Some supermarkets suggest leaving chickens in the oven almost an hour longer than required.
A study looked at the recommended cooking times on whole chickens sold at Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Lidl.
A roasting chicken is thoroughly cooked once the internal temperature of the thickest part of the meat reaches 74C.
Sunday roasts are being ruined by supermarkets recommending unnecessarily long cooking times to ensure food bugs are killed
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Tesco labels suggest consumers cook a roast chicken for 85 minutes at 180C, but tests by researchers at Electronic Temperature Instruments (ETI), a digital thermometer manufacturer, found the inside of the bird was cooked after 35 minutes.
Lidl’s cooking time was 95 minutes at 170C, but their product reached its ideal temperature after 39 minutes.
Sainsbury’s and Waitrose’s cooking times were 85 minutes, but the Sainsbury’s chicken took 50 minutes to reach 74C while the Waitrose chicken took 54 minutes.
Researchers found that if consumers stuck to the recommended cooking times, chickens would reach an internal temperature of 93C, which is 26 per cent higher than necessary.
ETI boss Jason Webb wrote to the supermarkets with the findings and asked them to justify their cooking instructions.
He said: ‘We want this to start a conversation so we can combat this together. We’ve seen use-by-dates reviewed in recent years. Now it’s time that cooking guidelines are reviewed too.’
Retailers have come under pressure in the past from the Food Standards Agency for selling roasting chickens contaminated with bacteria such as salmonella.
Andrew Opie, of the British Retail Consortium, said: ‘Supermarkets take their responsibility to food safety seriously and suggested cooking times have been carefully considered to ensure the safe handling and cooking of raw meat at home.’
ETI boss Jason Webb wrote to the supermarkets with the findings and asked them to justify their cooking instructions
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