wheels,
I believe that in EU every slaughtered pig is inspected for Trichinella. This is not the case in the USA, here we take for granted that commercially grown pigs are Trichinella free. A pig raised on a farm may be infected with Trichinella. A commercially raised pig is fed properly prepared food. A pig that roams free will eat anything and may be contaminated. Wild game such as deer or bear are often infected.
As far as eating fresh pork it more common than people think. Although I don't advocate it, the fact remains that I had eaten raw minced pork as a child and I am still eating it 60 years later. It will be useless to convince me that it was bad for me as I have never not got sick from eating it. Of course my sons will not eat raw meat. Many classy restaurant carry Steak Tartar on the menu and this is a raw ground meat served with raw egg, some onions, pickle etc.
The greatest army in the world - Genghis Khan and his Mongols (also known as Tartars) carried raw horse meat under the saddle. Meat was pounded during a ride and then consumed raw. Those people moved so fast that they did not stop for anything. When water was in a short supply, they would puncture horse's artery with a special straw and they will drink some blood while still riding.
Today, I would be more scared to eat raw beef than a raw pork. All cases of meat food poisoning (E. coli 0157H:7 and Salmonella) involve beef and somehow pork stays out of the trouble. This has little to do wth the meat itself, but is related to cleanliness and good manufacturing practices. Meat of a freshly killed animal is bacteria free, the problem begins when we start processing it. Bacteria live in the skin and in the guts, every time we make a cut with a knife, some new bacteria may be introduced into the meat. If this processing is done at low temperatures, there is little danger of the significant growth of bacteria. They will double up in numbers even at refrigerator temperature (0 C, 32 F), but they will need about 38 hours time. If meat is left at 26 C, 80 F, they will double up every hour. Now, we face danger.
To make it short: if everything was done by the book, the raw meat is safe to eat. If the rules were broken we may have a problem. It has nothing to do with the meat which is basically bacteria free. It is we, who contaminate meat.
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