This comment, from another processor of ground beef, is telling:
The food safety officer at American Foodservice, which grinds 365 million pounds of hamburger a year, said it stopped testing trimmings [for E. coli] a decade ago because of resistance from slaughterhouses. “They would not sell to us,” said Timothy P. Biela, the officer. “If I test and it’s positive, I put them in a regulatory situation. One, I have to tell the government, and two, the government will trace it back to them. So we don’t do that.”Costco does, but it has cost them:
Craig Wilson, Costco’s food safety director, said the company decided it could not rely on its suppliers alone. “It’s incumbent upon us,” he said. “If you say, ‘Craig, this is what we’ve done,’ I should be able to go, ‘Cool, I believe you.’ But I’m going to check.”The article did not look at ground pork or poultry, probably because the amounts produced are minuscule compared to ground beef. But I have no doubt that many of the same problems exist with respect to ground poultry and pork.
Costco said it had found E. coli in foreign and domestic beef trimmings and pressured suppliers to fix the problem. But even Costco, with its huge buying power, said it had met resistance from some big slaughterhouses. “Tyson will not supply us,” Mr. Wilson said. “They don’t want us to test.”
We are all complicit, in a way. Common sense would dictate that if ground beef were made of good cuts of meat, and only meat, it would cost as much, if not more, than steak. Because ground beef is cheaper, though, it should be obvious that there will be a lot of crap meat, fat, and everything else in the hamburger meat. The only thing that the producers are diligent in looking out for is metal, because metal will damage the grinders.
So, when you are in the supermarket and you are looking at a package of ground beef, knowing that if it is contaminated with E. coli, that it could really fuck up your life, you have to ask yourself one question: Do you feel lucky?
Well, do you?
I treat ground beef the same way I treat chicken -- as de-facto contaminated. Everything touched by raw meat goes straight into the dishwasher to get steam-cleaned as soon I'm done with it, the cooked meat comes off the grill with a clean instrument that has never touched raw meat and goes onto a clean plate, and I cook it until it's well and done, no medium-rare hamburgers in my place. And I buy from Costco.
ReplyDeleteSo far no e. coli food poisoning. But if I cooked hamburgers more than once a month, I suspect I would have managed at least one bout of food poisoning already despite all my precautions...
I usually grind my own from a roast cut. When I do buy hb from my market, it's fresh ground by the meat dept, whom I trust and have known for a long time.
ReplyDeleteI never buy factory frozen hb. I use the same prep and cooking rules as BadTux. Additionally, raw meat never touches a wood cutting board.
Then again I do eat an occasional fast food burger...
Thing is, at least for me, a well-done burger is as tasty as meat-flavored cardboard.
ReplyDeleteI used to never eat the stuff.
ReplyDeleteVeggie me.
But now, with all the poverty running amuck in my life, that $1.00 MacD double burger has taken hold.
I will die soon.
Thanks for the heads-up. I knew it was bad. Now I know how bad.
S
Here's another 44 tons of trimmings that may make it into the frozen burger supply;
ReplyDeletehttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091004/ap_on_re_us/us_meat_mess/
Kudos for Costco, and I figure I've purchased my last Tyson product.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Comrade, in not caring for well done burgers, but there is little alternative. Even utilizing a fresh cut there is potential exposure. The reason a rare steak or roast is safe is that the e. coli is on the surface and killed by heat applied to that surface. If you grind a fresh cut, you tumble the potentially contaminated surface meat into the whole batch, meaning you must still cook it well done to be certain.
I very rarely buy ground beef, and if I do it is only from Costco. We don't eat much beef, to be honest. We limit ourselves to bison and a little pork as red meat sources.
ReplyDelete