A new study found that cookbook information is often incorrect when it comes to safe food handling.

Canadian cookbook authors may know how to create great recipes, but they're lacking when it comes to food safety advice. A new study out of the University of Guelph found that 96 percent of newly published cookbooks in Canada "provided incorrect temperatures or failed to include minimum internal temperatures needed to determine if food is safely cooked."

The researchers came to this conclusion after analyzing how 19 newly published cookbooks handled seven food categories – fresh meat, seafood, eggs, poultry, pork, ground meat, and meat mixes. What they found was an alarming lack of information about how to handle these potentially risky ingredients.

Ten percent of the recipes "actually contained unsafe food preparation instructions in the form of thawing and washing," said study co-author and food science professor Jeffrey Farber. Only 8 percent recommended using a food thermometer. The rest of the time, home cooks are urged to determine doneness by look and time passed, but Farber says these methods aren't reliable or safe. He is cited in the Star: