Tesco shares important message to anyone buying sausages

Supermarket Tesco has shared its advice on how to cook, defrost and store meat safely, including sausages, one of the most popular meat products in the UK. The supermarket explained that meats including sausages, chicken, turkey, game, duck, pork, mince, and joints that are rolled or boned, need to be cooked through.

Sausages should be cooked "until piping hot throughout, with no pink colour in the centre". They explained: "If you have a temperature probe, check the centre of the meat has reached 70C for at least two minutes (or 75C for at least 30 seconds)." However, other meat like steaks, whole cuts of lamb and venison, can be cooked and eaten rare because the germs that cause food poisoning are only present on the outside of these cuts.

It is important to note that pregnant women should cook all meat through because of the risk of toxoplasmosis.

Frozen sausages should be completely defrosted before cooking. Tesco advised: "Defrost in the fridge overnight, or if you're going to cook it straight away, you can defrost using the microwave. It's best not to use running water to avoid spreading germs around."

The retailer shared another important piece of advice and urged shoppers not to wash sausages. This is because when you wash meat, water can splash onto surfaces spreading bacteria, including those that may cause food poisoning.

The supermarket explained: "We may have read in cookbooks or been told by our grandmother to wash poultry or meat before preparing it but in fact this is one of the worst things you can do. Just small numbers of Campylobacter, and other food poisoning bacteria, such as Salmonella and E.coli O157, found in fresh poultry and other raw meat can cause serious infections."

Tesco recommended always storing raw sausages in sealed containers at the bottom of the fridge, "to stop juices dripping onto other ready-to-eat foods".

They also advised washing surfaces before and after preparing food and using separate chopping boards and utensils for raw sausages, meat, and other foods that are ready to eat.

After cooking sausages, wash all the utensils thoroughly with hot water and washing up liquid or put them in the dishwasher, and wash your hands thoroughly and dispose of any meat packaging carefully and wash your hands afterwards.