When researching my articles on Sous Vide I came across articles that were of the opinion that sous vide was unsafe for two main reasons. One, the temperatures that the food is cooked at is not high enough to destroy harmful bacteria and, two, harmful chemicals in the plastic bags used to cook the food could leach into the food.

I asked three fans of the method, chefs Dane Clouston, Richard Ekkebus, and Gregoire Michaud what they thought and also asked them about tips for home use.

Is it Safe?  

"It comes down to sanitation and then after cooking holding the item at the correct temperatures, this is a safe method of cookery but you need to be extremely hygienic when cooking in this way. In regards to plastics we have always used food safe bags, I do not think one should really get hung up on this," says Clouston.

Ekkebus believes that the method is safe as long as you know what you are doing. "It is certainly not dangerous to cook at low temperature. As a precaution every item we cook on low temperature is fully analysed, as we maintain a HACCP environment, where every critical control point is identified and fully controlled, documented and audited. The bags we use are special cooking bags and are tested and do not transmit plastic as they are resistant up to 100 degrees, we cook at a lower temperature than this, so there is no risk, it is completely safe."

More fiction than fact is Michaud's view. "Like anything ‘new', it creates controversy on whether it is safe or not. The fact about sous vide is that it has been used industrially to produce ready-made meals for the past 30 years or more, but yet, there is little evidence of harm. It is only recently that sous vide has been brought to public use, and like theories of the microwave oven and the barbecue grill causing cancer, or the mobile phone frying your brain, I guess it is pretty much a matter of quantity. There might very well be chemicals released in sous vide cooking, but most likely, you won't be eating sous vide cooked meals everyday."

Adding, "Of course, there are always specific medical cases where people will highly react to such or such chemical, but that is the case with many other chemicals. If people worry about the leaching of chemicals from sous vide, then perhaps re-heating food in a microwave may become a concern. It is important to use food-safe containers in any cooking endeavor."

The key concern for him is environmental due to the heavy use of plastic bags. "At the same time that society is trying to reduce the usage of plastic bags chefs are using one bag per each piece of food served. My hope is to have bags made from a natural component, like corn for example, suitable for sous vide cooking, or at least bags that are fully degradable so as to reduce the impact on nature."

Sous Vide at Home

As mentioned in Part 1 (link below) a water oven for home use, the Sous Vide Supreme, was released late last year. I asked our three experts for advice on preparing sous vide dishes at home.

Ekkebus says the technique needs a lot of patience. "I am not sure all amateur chefs would be ready to wait 14 hours to cook a pork belly, further in the hands of a person that has no clue of the impact of temperature abuse it can be a dangerous machine."

Michaud believes that a machine for home use is a good thing but that the correct knowledge is important. "I guess that for fruits or vegetable, there won't be many issues, but when it comes to meat or fish products, the hygiene, handling temperatures and time must be followed very carefully due to the low temperatures of cooking."

Ekkebus recommends that people interested in exploring this technique buy Thomas Keller's book Under Pressure. "The book does not present anything new but it is a very comprehensive and well detailed and certainly ground breaking for amateurs. Read the intro and technical chapters through first, it is important to understand how to use the technique and how to work within the right temperatures, the hygiene that needs to be respected and how to cool the food down.

Clouston believes that it is a good technique to use as it helps to keep cooking consistent and also brings out flavors in a product. "Have patience and have fun," he says.

Previous Sous Vide Articles

Part 1 - http://www.womguide.com/hot-features/all-about/sous-vide-part-1

Part 2 - http://www.womguide.com/hot-features/all-about/all-about-sous-vide-part-2

Image Credit:1 Clouston; 2 Ekkebus; 3 Michaud; 4,5, Homepage courtesy of Sous Vide Surpreme. Full details (position and place) for the chefs can be found in Part 2.