Can microwaving food kill any bacteria that may be in it?

This is possible, but often heating in a microwave oven produces "hot" and "cold" spots.





If additional water is added and the food is cooked long enough with a cover, the bacteria can be killed.





Check out the references below:

Can microwaving food kill any bacteria that may be in it?
Microwave ovens use microwaves to heat...whats this really mean, it means that a frequency of light that we can't see is generated within the microwave and bounces around inside and heats the food, the little holes are designed to be a size that better reflects the microwaves, keeping them from escaping.





2.450 Ghz, is the frequency being generated, this is important because it is a resonant frequency of water.





So what is actually happening is that the water in the food resonates the best to this frequency, efficiently absorbing the 2.450 GHz radiation and heats up.





This means that the only thing in the microwave that is really being heated is the water....this can kill bacteria not because its some type or nuclear radiation that poisons it, but simply because bacteria, like us, are full of water, and like any other way of cooking food, if you heat it hot enough you will kill most of the bacteria from over heating them.





just FYI...that also means that the 2.4 Ghz cordless phones that they sell, or you 802.11 wireless router also emits microwaves....just at lower powers, but yes on a smaller scale public of the US is slowly cooking themselves with microwaves, heh, that's why these frequencies are banned in Europe...
Reply:As the previous two responders said, the key is to heat the content sufficiently to kill the bacteria. I believe the recommendation is usually to get it up to 160F minimum to kill common food bacteria (check me on this though).





There's certainly no guarantee all bacteria will happen to lie in an irradiated zone in the microwave, so it's important the entire food content be brought to the required temperature for sterilization.
Reply:The definition of temperature is how fast the molecules are moving. Microwaving causes the molecules to vibrate faster. This increases the temperature. Killing bacteria takes heat over a time period. Therefore it is possible to still havae bacteria alive after a food has quickly heated . In pasteurization they can heat the milk to a certain temp for so many seconds or to a higher temp for fewer seconds. Meat is usually cooked to an internal temperature. This can still be done using a thermometer. Vegetables and fruit should be washed. Reheatng leftovers can be a problem especially if they had become contaminated. (leftovers from a restaurant that you ate from or something that was left out too long.)