Cooking frozen pizzas in microwaves allows bacteria to survive.

Our kids love frozen pizza, so when General Mills recalled 3.3 million Jeno's and Totino's pizzas, we were scared. After we removed anything even resembling a pizza last night from our freezers, we starting hearing news reports that cooking pizzas in conventional ovens normally kills all the E. coli bacteria, but cooking them in microwaves does not. Huh? "When you heat food in a microwave, it cooks unevenly," says dietician Debi Silber. "You know how sometimes you'll bite into food that's hot on the outside, but cold on the inside? Those cold spots allow bacteria to survive." Cooking food in an oven is definitely safer. But for those of us who just don't have the time, here are some tips from the FDA on making microwave cooking safer.