Fish and steak are totally different animals (pun intended) and the way they are handled after slaughter is completely different.
Chickens are dunked in a cold bath with a lot of other chickens after slaughter. This creates a lot of opportunity for cross contamination. Air chilling the chicken mitigates, but doesn’t completely eliminate, this. It’s still potentially dangerous to eat air chilled chicken undercooked because the structure of the meat still allows salmonella to more easily penetrate the muscle. Air chilling chicken at scale is a newer approach because it’s always been cheaper to water chill it. Air chilled chicken is significantly more expensive to purchase.
Cattle are air chilled, but before they go in to be chilled, the carcass is gutted and washed out. Care is taken to ensure tainted meat is not present during the chilling phase. Chilling cattle is also an aging process that takes several days. You wouldn’t eat a raw steak because pathogens do get on the surface of the meat, but they do have a hard time penetrating the muscle. So yeah, you sear or grill the outside to kill those pathogens. They certainly can get into the muscle so eating a steak at under 165°F does still carry risk of foodborne illness. Still, it’s generally safe to do so.
As for fish, I don’t know enough to assert anything, but I’ll speculate that it’s because fish is handled and chilled over ice very quickly and you’re always eating whole cuts. Still, raw fish is risky and it’s significantly safer to at least cook the outside. Don’t let that stop you from trying raw sushi though.
Fish and steak are totally different animals (pun intended) and the way they are handled after slaughter is completely different.
Chickens are dunked in a cold bath with a lot of other chickens after slaughter. This creates a lot of opportunity for cross contamination. Air chilling the chicken mitigates, but doesn’t completely eliminate, this. It’s still potentially dangerous to eat air chilled chicken undercooked because the structure of the meat still allows salmonella to more easily penetrate the muscle. Air chilling chicken at scale is a newer approach because it’s always been cheaper to water chill it. Air chilled chicken is significantly more expensive to purchase.
Cattle are air chilled, but before they go in to be chilled, the carcass is gutted and washed out. Care is taken to ensure tainted meat is not present during the chilling phase. Chilling cattle is also an aging process that takes several days. You wouldn’t eat a raw steak because pathogens do get on the surface of the meat, but they do have a hard time penetrating the muscle. So yeah, you sear or grill the outside to kill those pathogens. They certainly can get into the muscle so eating a steak at under 165°F does still carry risk of foodborne illness. Still, it’s generally safe to do so.
The same can even be said of whole pork cuts. The USDA recommends at least 145°F with a 3 minute rest period.
As for fish, I don’t know enough to assert anything, but I’ll speculate that it’s because fish is handled and chilled over ice very quickly and you’re always eating whole cuts. Still, raw fish is risky and it’s significantly safer to at least cook the outside. Don’t let that stop you from trying raw sushi though.