A third, and probably on the whole, the most valuable and important service rendered by cooking is, that it sterilizes our food and kills any germs, or animal parasites, which may have been in the body of the animal, or in the leaves of the plant, from which it came; or, as is far the commoner and greater danger, may have got on it from dirty or careless handling, or exposure to dust.
"A Handbook of Health"
Woods Hutchinson
Cooking makes oysters somewhat tough, but it sterilizes them and makes them safer to use.
"School and Home Cooking"
Carlotta C. Greer
Raised, as the canals are, above the soil, the water percolates through their banks, penetrates every obstruction, and, in spite of all the efforts of industry, sterilizes and turns to morasses fields which nature and the richness of the soil seemed to have designed for the most abundant harvests.
"The Earth as Modified by Human Action"
George P. Marsh