bear meat "freeze or not to freeze?"

[endtimerwithabow]

I was talkn to buddy at work and he asks me what I was going to do with my bear meat. so I tell him I am going to make sausages, pepperonis and garlic rings out of it. He then asks me if I am going to freeze the meat for 3 months first to kill the heart worm? I says pardon?:shock: Yeah! freezing is the only way to kill the heart worm, cooking dosnt he tells me. OH I start thinking hmmm,:-? I have already started eating some of the meat and feed it to my wife and kids. So my question is, "Who here freezes their bear meat?" "Should I be concerned about this?" " Is there any way to tell if the meat has this worm in it?" (some sort of test)

[Thunderstix]

Ok, heart worm lives in the heart. I think he means Trichinosis. If you are concerned about this then look up the address of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands Resource Management Branch and also phone them at 604-556-3100. They will usually test the bears tongue for free and let you know whether trich is present.

[ratherbefishin]

I freeze the meat and cook it well in any case.A friend of mine who was a surgeon said he had never seen a case of trichinosis in a bear,and figured itwent back to the logging camp days when they kept hogs for meat and bears ate the offal,but with the demise of that practise,the incidence of bears being infected also went down.He still froze his bear meat and cooked itwell-just in case

[bighornbob]

Cooking is the only way to completely kill all the Trich. Some guys say freezing can but that is commercial freezers that go down to something like -15. Most peoples freezers at home can not get this cold.

This was brought up and argued on another forum and a link was provided to the US Food and Drug page where it said only cooking to a certain temp guarentees the food.

I will see if I can find the link.

BHB

[3kills]

cooking does kill it....and as bighornbob said ur freeszer wont kill it cuz it doesnt get cold enough it has to be i think -25 for like 10 days or -29 for like 6 days....if u send ur meat to a butcher to make garlic coil they usually freeze if for the required time plus when they hot smoke it, it is hittin the right temps to kill the trich that may or may not be present...

[brotherjack]

These rumors go around all the time. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control), who I think probably knows what they're talking about here:

How can I prevent trichinellosis?

Cook meat products until the juices run clear or to an internal temperature of 170 o F.
Freeze pork less than 6 inches thick for 20 days at 5 o F to kill any worms.
Cook wild game meat thoroughly. Freezing wild game meats, unlike freezing pork products, even for long periods of time, may not effectively kill all worms.
Cook all meat fed to pigs or other wild animals.
Do not allow hogs to eat uncooked carcasses of other animals, including rats, which may be infected with trichinellosis.
Clean meat grinders thoroughly if you prepare your own ground meats.
Curing (salting), drying, smoking, or microwaving meat does not consistently kill infective worms.See this URL for more info: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/trichinosis/factsht_trichinosis.htm



Basically, treat it like pork - cook to 170 degrees (F), and you're fine. But tell your buddy that freezing does NOT kill the worms in bears, but cooking does.

[ryanb]

Well Jerky, Pepperoni, and garlic ring are not likely reaching the required temps, even with hot smoking. I turned down my freezer to its lowest setting and that hit -28 C. This should, by all accounts kill the trichinosis. I did some reading and it seems that the freezing-resistant trichosis is usually only found in bears from arctic climates in Alaska and Northern Canada, and Walrus meats from up north.

[Thunderstix]

Ahem! Send in whole tongue, eat rare steak, sleep with no worries!

[3kills]

if done corectly garlic sausage and other sauceages should hit the required temps...i m pretty sure u are right about pepproni though....

[endtimerwithabow]

thank you guys for all the info. I dont have the tongue! I plan on making all my own pepperonis and sausages and garlic rings. I will be using a hot smoke method to cook the meat and then freezing them. I am gonig to look at my freezer to see how COLD it will go aswell.


Thank you again

Doug

[puppychow]

Freeze and cook well if you plan to do the meat yourself. Butchers have had my meat made into pepperoni and back to me in 2 weeks, safe to eat???????????? Be safe and freeze it.

[greenhorn]

Hey Puppychow;

I had some of my pepperoni from Friesen's last night. Wow!!

That was a really fun weekend, and now I have 40lbs of pepperoni to remember it by.

Don't want to hijack the thread topic, but Friesen makes a really good teriyaki pepperoni!

Chris

[Elkhound]

Ok, heart worm lives in the heart. I think he means Trichinosis. If you are concerned about this then look up the address of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands Resource Management Branch and also phone them at 604-556-3100. They will usually test the bears tongue for free and let you know whether trich is present.

Thanks for that number Thunderstix

[nykoma]

cool some good info there thanx guys