Bear meat! You freeze right away or no?

[Mosin]

How many of you freeze your bear meat right away to "kill" trichnosis? Wouldn't cooking it kill it right away as well? Twice I haven't even bothered freezing it had it made it into pepperoni...what are the real world likely hood if getting trichnosis from a bear?

[Would Rather Be Fishing]

To my knowledge, freezing does not kill trich in bears. See e.g. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/trichinosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20378583

REal world likelyhood in BC is about 1 in 3 (1 in 3 bears has trich, that is about a year old and I can't find the source now) if you undercook the meat, and pretty much 0 if you cook it properly!

[Steeleco]

Hunted, cut and wrapped many a bear in my shop. To my knowledge NONE have had trick, we cut when time permits. Clear wrap then butcher paper. It's the cooking that kills the bug not the cold. As with all meat, keep it clean cook it right and enjoy!!

[Ron.C]

Cook it properly and you need not be concerned.

[Arctic Lake]

Was a time that it was either freeze for a certain length of time or cook to proper temperature ,seems it has changed .
Arctic Lake

[Would Rather Be Fishing]

Found it. The number I posted above/remembered was for grizzlies, black bears are around 12%: http://www.bccdc.ca/Documents/Trichinosis%20Trichinellosis%20-%20Summary%20Guidance%20for%20Veterinarians.pdf

[Fella]

Freezing doesn’t kill the trich that’s in bears, it’s not the same kind as what is/was in pork.

[Gateholio]

Freezing would normally kill trich in pigs, but not bears. At least with a home freezer.

Interestingly - trich has pretty much been eradicated in most pork these days.

[Arctic Lake]

This is true,worked in the industry !
Arctic Lake

Freezing would normally kill trich in pigs, but not bears. At least with a home freezer.

Interestingly - trich has pretty much been eradicated in most pork these days.

[Stone Sheep Steve]

As mentioned by most above, freezing doesn’t kill bear trich.

Larvae are relatively small compared to other worms found in bear meat. Don’t rely on not seeing them in bear meat to determine that your bear doesn’t carry trich.

The older the bear the higher odds of it carrying trich because once it gets it, it has it for life.

Only safe way to eat bear meat is to assume that every bear carries it.

SSS

[Mosin]

Good info here...thanks guys

[Jamesonm]

I agree thanks for the insight.

Is it necessary to age bear meat? Or do most people recommend cutting it up rather quickly once it has been cooled down to an appropriate temperature?

I don't have a meat cooler so I'm hoping to cool it with ice and then start cutting.

[Crixus]

Has anyone got their bear meat tested before? I've read that trich actually dies at 137 F (source linked below) but you better make sure all of your meat is that temp. I sous vide a couple bear roasts last year for 48 hrs at 150 F and was great. I'd love to do a roast medium rare! Is there a lab you can go to around Vancouver that does this?

https://honest-food.net/on-trichinosis-in-wild-game/

[Jamesonm]

Sustained temperatures versus peak temperature, such as a sous vide allow you to cook the meat to a lower temperature, as all of the meat is heated to a consistent temp throughout.

[Jamesonm]

140 in a sous vide is good.

[wideopenthrottle]

Was a time that it was either freeze for a certain length of time or cook to proper temperature ,seems it has changed .
Arctic Lake
that is for pork only not bear....the wild strain has lived and adapted to survive in the cold

[MontyLake]

Was a time that it was either freeze for a certain length of time or cook to proper temperature ,seems it has changed .
Arctic Lake

That was bad advice from the get-go.

[Pauly]

I thought you were supposed to wipe their asses after you shoot them? No?

[JG75]

This is purely anecdotal, my buddy who's a butcher always tells me to freeze my bear meat for minimum 30 days before making it into sausage. I think it's just to be triple safe just in case you don't smoke it until it gets to a "safe temperature"

[pg83]

My go-to butcher won't touch bear unless it has been frozen for a few days. Not sure it really makes any difference, but I'm not a professional in the industry and have zero issues complying with his request.

As has been mentioned many times now in this thread, cook your bear meat well and there are no issues with Trich.

[Pauly]

You’d have to go along ways to over cook bear especially fall bear with all its fat.

[180grainer]

Hunted, cut and wrapped many a bear in my shop. To my knowledge NONE have had trick, we cut when time permits. Clear wrap then butcher paper. It's the cooking that kills the bug not the cold. As with all meat, keep it clean cook it right and enjoy!!
Can you actually "see" that a bear has trick. I've skinned out a number of bears, but I couldn't say which had it and which didn't. I guess, cause I didn't know what to look for.

[MontyLake]

You’d have to go along ways to over cook bear especially fall bear with all its fat.


???

If you trim all the fat off before freezing it's just like any other game meat.

The fat is on the outside.

[Pauly]

No it’s not lol a lot you know .. bear is well marbled with fat

[MontyLake]

No it’s not lol a lot you know .. bear is well marbled with fat


My mistake. Sorry.

I guess after 44 years of shooting, butchering and cooking bears I know phoqu-all.

[Steeleco]

My mistake. Sorry.

I guess after 44 years of shooting, butchering and cooking bears I know phoqu-all.

That makes 2 of us? Pauly being silly I feel

[IronNoggin]

That makes 2 of us? Pauly being silly I feel

Nope. Just being the mouthy little pissant that he is.
Reality.

Nog

[walks with deer]

No it’s not lol a lot you know .. bear is well marbled with fat

i agree with pauly this time....lots of fat entrained in the meat.

[caddisguy]

Plenty of testing on trich strains that infect bears.

Some notable ones are that freezing for several years, varying temperatures between -2 and -30 did nothing to destroy it... still ready to party, eggs/cysts ready to hatch many years later. Bear meat and fox meat both tested.

The freezing myth comes from some trich strains in the south that were an issue in pork meat half a century ago.

You can't kill trich in BC bears by freezing, for 3 weeks, 3 months, 3 years or even a decade. It just doesn't happen. Around 15-20% of bears in the Fraser Valley have trich and the number gets higher (75-90%) up in the territories.

You only have to do one thing to make it a non issue and that is cook it to 165 (instant death for trich) or study and be confident in lower temperatures at longer durations. The data is available... X minutes at 140F is safe, Y minutes at 150F is is safe. All I know is internal temperature of 165F is instant death and safe. I don't cook beat meat for steaks... mostly ground for hamburgers, sloppy joes, burritos, etc... I can cook it at 165 for 1 minute or 5 minutes and it tastes the same. If I wanted a "well done" (because that is the only way to do it) bear steak, I'd figure out the X minutes at 140F so I could get away with my steak "slightly well less done" .... but I prefer ground

I do freeze it as soon as I can. I treat bear meat as if I acquired a 4 liter jug of milk in the bush on a 20-30 degree day and want to keep it good. That means get it cool fast (put game bags in garbage bag, soak it in snow run-off drainage (coming out from ice a few hundred meters above) plop it in the cooler with ice... if it is late in the day and I have no ice, as long as temps are dipping good and I got the meat cool I will wait until morning before ripping home. Then we get busy with the grinder and vaccum packing... if I'm confident the meat was at cool temps so far throughout the process, I'm fine with leaving half it in the fridge until the next day... if I shot it 10AM and didn't get it home until 4PM, was fighting off flies the entire time, no ice along the way, I make darn sure it gets processed and frozen ASAP.