How Safe Is Your Ground Beef?

[Christopher O'Brien]

[If you are a beef lover (like uhh, me) you should bring yourself up-to-speed about the potential ill-effects of industrialized beef. If it's raised in a feed-lot who knows what evil lurks? I've been saying for years that this is a MAJOR cultural (health-related) blindspot. This Consumer Reports article is a must-read if you give a sh*t about this largely ignored subject! —chris]

Article HERE:

By Andrea Rock/Consumer Reports
“The American love affair with ground beef endures. We put it between buns. Tuck it inside burritos. Stir it into chili. Even as U.S. red meat consumption has dropped overall in recent years, we still bought 4.6 billion pounds of beef in grocery and big-box stores over the past year. And more of the beef we buy today is in the ground form—about 50 percent vs. 42 percent a decade ago. We like its convenience, and often its price.

“The appetite persists despite solid evidence—including new test results here at Consumer Reports—that ground beef can make you seriously sick, particularly when it’s cooked at rare or medium-rare temperatures under 160° F. “Up to 28 percent of Americans eat ground beef that’s raw or undercooked,” says Hannah Gould, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“All meat potentially contains bacteria that—if not destroyed by proper cooking—can cause food poisoning, but some meats are more risky than others. Beef, and especially ground beef, has a combination of qualities that can make it particularly problematic—and the consequences of eating tainted beef can be severe.

“Indeed, food poisoning outbreaks and recalls of bacteria-tainted ground beef are all too frequent. Just before the July 4 holiday this year, 13.5 tons of ground beef and steak destined for restaurants and other food-service operations were recalled on a single day because of possible contamination with a dangerous bacteria known as E. coli O157:H7. That particular bacterial strain can release a toxin that damages the lining of the intestine, often leading to abdominal cramps, bloody diarrhea, vomiting, and in some cases, life-threatening kidney damage. Though the contaminated meat was discovered by the meat-packing company’s inspectors before any cases of food poisoning were reported, we haven’t always been so lucky.

“Between 2003 and 2012, there were almost 80 outbreaks of E. coli O157 due to tainted beef, sickening 1,144 people, putting 316 in the hospital, and killing five. Ground beef was the source of the majority of those outbreaks. And incidences of food poisoning are vastly underreported. “For every case of E. coli O157 that we hear about, we estimate that another 26 cases actually occur,” Gould says. She also reports that beef is the fourth most common cause of salmonella outbreaks—one of the most common food borne illnesses in the U.S.—and for each reported illness caused by that bacteria, an estimated 29 other people are infected…”

REST OF ARTICLE HERE:

 

[Randall]

[If you are a beef lover (like uhh, me) you should bring yourself up-to-speed about the potential ill-effects of industrialized beef. If it's raised in a feed-lot who knows what evil lurks? I've been saying for years that this is a MAJOR cultural (health-related) blindspot. This Consumer Reports article is a must-read if you give a sh*t about this largely ignored subject! —chris]

Article HERE:

By Andrea Rock/Consumer Reports
“The American love affair with ground beef endures. We put it between buns. Tuck it inside burritos. Stir it into chili. Even as U.S. red meat consumption has dropped overall in recent years, we still bought 4.6 billion pounds of beef in grocery and big-box stores over the past year. And more of the beef we buy today is in the ground form—about 50 percent vs. 42 percent a decade ago. We like its convenience, and often its price.

“The appetite persists despite solid evidence—including new test results here at Consumer Reports—that ground beef can make you seriously sick, particularly when it’s cooked at rare or medium-rare temperatures under 160° F. “Up to 28 percent of Americans eat ground beef that’s raw or undercooked,” says Hannah Gould, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“All meat potentially contains bacteria that—if not destroyed by proper cooking—can cause food poisoning, but some meats are more risky than others. Beef, and especially ground beef, has a combination of qualities that can make it particularly problematic—and the consequences of eating tainted beef can be severe.

“Indeed, food poisoning outbreaks and recalls of bacteria-tainted ground beef are all too frequent. Just before the July 4 holiday this year, 13.5 tons of ground beef and steak destined for restaurants and other food-service operations were recalled on a single day because of possible contamination with a dangerous bacteria known as E. coli O157:H7. That particular bacterial strain can release a toxin that damages the lining of the intestine, often leading to abdominal cramps, bloody diarrhea, vomiting, and in some cases, life-threatening kidney damage. Though the contaminated meat was discovered by the meat-packing company’s inspectors before any cases of food poisoning were reported, we haven’t always been so lucky.

“Between 2003 and 2012, there were almost 80 outbreaks of E. coli O157 due to tainted beef, sickening 1,144 people, putting 316 in the hospital, and killing five. Ground beef was the source of the majority of those outbreaks. And incidences of food poisoning are vastly underreported. “For every case of E. coli O157 that we hear about, we estimate that another 26 cases actually occur,” Gould says. She also reports that beef is the fourth most common cause of salmonella outbreaks—one of the most common food borne illnesses in the U.S.—and for each reported illness caused by that bacteria, an estimated 29 other people are infected…”

REST OF ARTICLE HERE:

How safe is any food these days? Raw vegetables also have bacteria and are the hardest of all foods for us to digest. I quit eating bean sprouts for years after a couple of breakouts of contaminated bean sprouts, and in recent years there have been more than one spinach recall. The other day on the radio I heard they were recalling a bunch of peas. And since Fukushima who knows how bad the seafood radiation hazard is? I seem to recall that one student got a Geiger counter and found various levels of contamination on the local supermarket shelves. Add to that our daily intake of GMOs and diet soda and what's left? Vapes? Become a breatharian? Sure why not? Serve me up a double order, BBQ rib flavor .

 

[technomage]

I generally only eat grass feed beef from the organic food store or from an organic farm where I get beef, lamb and pork.

Regarding vegetables, I try to grow as much of my own as possible and continue to expand what I grow.

 

[Mr. Fibuli]

Since I'm made out of Iron Will, I'll be suprised if the calories I ingest for fuel take me out, but I am very worried for the vast majority of people who are susceptable to food illness/poisoning. A low calorie diet is a good fix for a lot of people. Less oxidization/bowel clogging/etc. I eat CRAP but I only create mindfully prepared food if it's for anyone else.

 

[Goggs Mackay]

I don't eat much beef, never have done, even though I don't mind burgers etc. The thing about the beef industry that really does bother me though is simply the economics of using land. Taking into account all the animal medicine bills, the production costs and the whole chain involved with getting us our beef, the bottom line is that if we used the same area of land for crops of various kinds, we would basically have much, much more food to go around! And it is much cheaper than raising cattle or other livestock. Now, I'm not a vegetarian or any such thing but I feel sad thinking about vast tracts of land in South America being irreversibly altered so that more and more cattle can be raised to provide for the beef industry.

Not for a second am I advocating that there shouldn't be a beef industry but as a society (North America and Europe amongst others) we really do not need to eat anywhere near the volume of meat that many people do. There is obviously arguments by some about the fact the ever-growing world population is fast reaching a tipping point at which it will be harder and harder to provide enough food for everyone and to be blunt, this is an argument I care little for - even though it has perfect merit - you see I think that kind of reasoning is caving in and missing the point in that the worlds no.1 problem is simply population growth. The advanced countries with stable or falling birthrates need to take in hand the countries whose populations are growing - and usually they are the places who can least afford runaway population growth.
We need to get totally serious about population growth right now, before it quickly gets to unmanageable levels. I don't want to sound cruel and uncaring but the bottom line is that nature will end up balancing the scales with biblical brute force when simply people will die of starvation and disease when there is not enough food and medicine to go around. To think that soon enough we may totally have ran out of useable antibiotics, simply because weak-minded Doctors knowingly hand out antibiotics for conditions they don't even help, just to appease a complaining and sick patient. If the scourge of death by infection returns at even a fraction of what it was just 100 years ago, things will be very ugly very quickly.

 

[Han]

My understanding is that in the US "pink slime" can be added to ground beef without it being labeled.
If I was living there and wanted ground beef, I would invest in a grinder and mince cheaper cuts of "organic"/grass fed beef my self, not only would it taste a lot better I believe it would be a lot safer.
I am not sure how it works there, but here you can ask the local butcher to grind beef you have bought from him, if you don't want to buy a grinder. I really do believe in using as much of an animal that has been slaughtered as possible but pink slime and MRM* are definitely off my menu.

*Mechanically Recovered Meat.