You asked: Should I swap utensils when cooking meat?

Q: When cooking meat on the stovetop or grill, do I need to switch out my cooking utensil when the chicken is cooked before continuing the rest of the recipe? I have several recipes, such as stir-fries, that say to cook the chicken or other protein first in a skillet, then add the remaining ingredients. Since the spatula touched raw chicken, should I switch to a clean spatula before adding the other ingredients? Or should I make the switch after flipping the chicken but before touching it again to stir-fry?

A: This was a question that came up recently during our weekly live chat, where we help you level up your skills in the kitchen. Here’s what you need to know about changing utensils when cooking meat.

Meat of all kinds comes with the risk of being contaminated with pathogens that can cause illness. “You want to make sure you cook them to the right temperature, but you also want to make sure that there’s no cross-contamination that happens in between handling the raw product and then handling the finished product,” Renee Boyer, a food safety professor and extension specialist at Virginia Tech, said over a video call. With spoons, spatulas, tongs and other cooking utensils, that means using a different utensil (or cleaning and sanitizing the one you cooked with) when it comes time to serve. Just as you wouldn’t put cooked meat on the same cutting board you used to prep the raw product, think of utensils the same way.

The risk of recontaminating the meat while cooking with the utensil is “relatively minimal,” Boyer said. “The big key is making sure that you use a meat thermometer to get that food, whatever it is, cooked to the appropriate temperature.” Once the meat has reached the desired temperature, that’s when you should swap or clean your utensil.

Another thing to consider is whether that utensil was placed on a spoon rest or the counter, as that could be another site of cross-contamination. You’ll want to swap or clean those areas, too, if you plan to place the serving utensil there.

For those who do not swap out or sanitize utensils while cooking meat and haven’t gotten sick because of it, now is still a great time to start. It’s all about risk reduction, which is especially important for people at increased risk of food poisoning, including young children, the elderly, pregnant people and people with weakened immune systems. “The absolute best practice would be to utilize a fresh, safe, clean and sanitized utensil, because then you can be sure that you’re not going to be at risk of contaminating anything,” Boyer said.