# Can I eat fully-cooked chicken sausage cold? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 12, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-fully-cooked-chicken-sausage-cold/596086 "2011-09-12T19:04:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![qubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f07891/32.png) [@qubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qubed)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-fully-cooked-chicken-sausage-cold/596086/1 "2011-09-12T19:04:19Z")
I have a pack of chicken sausage that says it’s fully cooked. But in its cooking instructions, it says to grill it making sure the internal temperature hits 165 degrees. But if it’s already fully cooked, why would I have to do that? ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-fully-cooked-chicken-sausage-cold/596086/2 "2011-09-12T19:08:51Z")
Even in fully-cooked food, there’s a slight chance that it could contain bacteria or other baddies that will be killed if you cook to 165 degrees. It’s probably very slight, especially if the sausage has been properly stored and you’re eating it before the expiration date, but still, the company wants a bit of CYA. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-fully-cooked-chicken-sausage-cold/596086/3 "2011-09-12T19:24:49Z")
Eat a couple. Tell us about it in the morning. If you live. ---
**Author:** ![qubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f07891/32.png) [@qubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qubed)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-fully-cooked-chicken-sausage-cold/596086/4 "2011-09-12T19:33:00Z")
I did eat a couple, though I did heat them up, but probably not to 165. If I had a food thermometer, I wouldn’t be buying fully-cooked sausages. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-fully-cooked-chicken-sausage-cold/596086/5 "2011-09-12T21:04:04Z")
I’ve eaten them cold many times, no problems. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-fully-cooked-chicken-sausage-cold/596086/6 "2011-09-12T21:31:34Z")
They put those warnings on a lot of frozen food, too. ---
**Author:** ![Clark\_Cello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Clark\_Cello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_Cello)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-fully-cooked-chicken-sausage-cold/596086/7 "2011-09-13T13:56:15Z")
Lawyers. ---
**Author:** ![qubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f07891/32.png) [@qubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qubed)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-fully-cooked-chicken-sausage-cold/596086/8 "2011-09-13T14:11:42Z")
Well, I’m still alive and not ill if anyone cares. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-fully-cooked-chicken-sausage-cold/596086/9 "2011-09-13T14:26:31Z")
One of my favorite hangover food: cold chicken wings. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-fully-cooked-chicken-sausage-cold/596086/10 "2011-09-13T15:00:41Z")
Food safety’s a difficult thing. When it comes right down to it, just about everything you put in your mouth has the potential to make you sick. We like to think that meat is the real bad thing, but it’s not - you can easily get sick from contaminated vegetables or fruits. The best thing you can do is to cook everything, but even that’s not 100%. Not all baddies are killed by heat. Botulism, for example, will still be plenty able to hurt you no matter how hot it gets. And who the heck wants to cook their lettuce or other fresh veggies/fruit? On the other hand, we’re all here, and we all eat everyday. So though the chances of getting sick are there (we’ve all experienced it) it’s typically not frequent enough or bad enough that most of us want to take every precaution there is. So just use common sense. That fully-cooked sausage, if it’s been stored correctly, is no more likely to hurt you than the raw carrot in your salad. Can they hurt you? Sure. Everything can. But when it comes right down to it, there’s not much you can do to be 100% sure you’ll never get food poisoning. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-fully-cooked-chicken-sausage-cold/596086/11 "2011-09-13T15:48:05Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > Botulism, for example, will still be plenty able to hurt you no matter how hot it gets. Botulism spores are killed by heat at 250F for three minutes (or five or ten, depending on your source.) Ain’t gonna help you with your steak, but for canning, that’s what you go by. And that’s for killing the spores. The toxin itself can be eliminated by heat at a much lower temperature (something like 175 for 10 minutes.) ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-fully-cooked-chicken-sausage-cold/596086/12 "2011-09-13T16:10:37Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Botulism spores are killed by heat at 250F for three minutes (or five or ten, depending on your source.) Ain’t gonna help you with your steak, but for canning, that’s what you go by. And that’s for killing the spores. The toxin itself can be eliminated by heat at a much lower temperature (something like 175 for 10 minutes.) Kinda. And yeah, saying “plenty able to hurt you no matter how hot it gets” is wrong, I mis-spoke. I tend to think it terms of cooking, where sure, you can burn something to a crisp, but who wants to eat fully-charred steak? And not all spores are killed that easily. According to “Modernist Cuisine”: > [@](#): > > Unfortunately, the _B. cereus_ emetic toxin is not heat labile; studies suggest that deactivating the toxin in contaminated food requires heating to 126 c/259 f for more than 1.5 hours. So sure, you can kill it. But you can’t kill it and make your steak edible. ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-fully-cooked-chicken-sausage-cold/596086/13 "2011-09-14T02:00:50Z")
The B. cereus toxin is more classically associated with leftover rice rather than steaks, in part because reheating it won’t destroy it. ---
**Author:** ![keturah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e95f7d/32.png) [@keturah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keturah)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-eat-fully-cooked-chicken-sausage-cold/596086/14 "2011-09-14T02:27:44Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > Kinda. And yeah, saying “plenty able to hurt you no matter how hot it gets” is wrong, I mis-spoke. I tend to think it terms of cooking, where sure, you can burn something to a crisp, but who wants to eat fully-charred steak? > > And not all spores are killed that easily. According to “Modernist Cuisine”: > > So sure, you can kill it. But you can’t kill it and make your steak edible. The problem with botulism isn’t the spores, it is the toxin. Botulism is anaerobic, so you really only should be worried about things like canned food, food immersed in oil (esp garlic) or sous vide applications. Of course, all of these things are done commonly and with some knowlege of the dangers are pretty readily avoided.