Ground Beef: Yummy

[RonBoyd]

I haven't purchased raw ground beef in about fifteen years and the number of hamburgers I have eaten during that time can be counted on one hand but... Am I the only one shocked by this? This borders on the unbelievable.

Trail of E. Coli Shows Flaws in Inspection of Ground Beef

Ground beef is usually not simply a chunk of meat run through a grinder. Instead, records and interviews show, a single portion of hamburger meat is often an amalgam of various grades of meat from different parts of cows and even from different slaughterhouses.

Yet confidential grinding logs and other Cargill records show that the hamburgers were made from a mix of slaughterhouse trimmings and a mash-like product derived from scraps that were ground together at a plant in Wisconsin. The ingredients came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas and Uruguay, and from a South Dakota company that processes fatty trimmings and treats them with ammonia to kill bacteria.

You don't even have to read the article. The graphic that is part of the article tells the whole story.

 

[WhoDaresWins]

I read this in this morning's NYT and was totally sickened. And quite agitated about the plight of the young woman profiled. Now I know why I have the butcher grind a roast when I want hamburger(not anymore expensive that a good grade of ground beef). I have never bought pre-formed burgers anyway.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

Now I want some burger for breakfast.

 

[Nords]

Read "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser. There are far worse things in CAFO meats than ammonia-treated slaughterhouse trimmings. A thorough study of how meat makes it to the average American freezer will turn you into a lifetime vegetarian.

I won't name the specific "secret sauce ingredients" here, but a browse of the "Let me make one thing perfectly clear" thread will readily suggest one or two.

 

[Martha]

I recently began eating meat in more than insignificant amounts. But I really, really am unhappy with how livestock is killed and processed, especially chicken. So I am spending more to buy local where I know what they do. Plus, after not being a beef eater I find that I favor the grass fed beef. Sure is pricey though.

 

[Khan]

I recently began eating meat in more than insignificant amounts. But I really, really am unhappy with how livestock is killed and processed, especially chicken. So I am spending more to buy local where I know what they do. Plus, after not being a beef eater I find that I favor the grass fed beef. Sure is pricey though.

I buy most of my egg and bird and mammal locally. Pricey true. I think it tastes better. Haven't yet found any local grass-fed ruminants.

 

[shoe]

After buying locally raised grass-fed beef I would never go back to grocery store beef. While I am not a tree hugger by any means, I just want to know that the animals I eat were afforded the ability to walk around in the sun and eat what critters naturally eat. I am paying $4.75 a pound for 85% grass-fed ground beef in NE Ohio and they deliver it for free if I spend $55. I used to order it from LaCense in Montana and was paying $7.25.

 

[freebird5825]

from the article...
Dr. James Marsden, a meat safety expert at Kansas State University and senior science adviser for the North American Meat Processors Association, said the Department of Agriculture needed to issue better guidance on avoiding cross-contamination, like urging people to use bleach to sterilize cutting boards. “Even if you are a scientist, much less a housewife with a child, it’s very difficult,” Dr. Marsden said.

I learned a lot about bacteria control measures when I had my little home business, repackaging raw popcorn and spices. No matter what you do eat, meats, dairy, veggies, if you follow his recommendation about cutting boards, you will avoid a lot of problems. I keep a spray bottle of sanitizing solution (bleach and water) for all of my cutting boards, soaking the surface immediately after using them. And I wash them in the dishwasher.
Overkill? You betcha!

 

[Dawg52]

Grilled up some burgers today. Pretty darn good.

 

[W2R]

Grilled up some burgers today. Pretty darn good.

I just got back from the grocery store, and bought a pound of hamburger. Looking forward to grilling later on. I know, such bravery...

 

[REWahoo]

I just got back from the grocery store, and bought a pound of hamburger. Looking forward to grilling later on. I know, such bravery...

Looks to me that your proximity to retirement may have begun to affect your judgment...

 

[REWahoo]

Uh oh. Watch out for a big sale on buffalo burgers...

SD town gets rid of 44 tons of stinking bison meat

 

[ziggy29]

Uh oh. Watch out for a big sale on buffalo burgers...http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091004/ap_on_re_us/us_meat_mess_8

Now he says it. I just finished making dinner using ground bison...

 

[freebird5825]

Uh oh. Watch out for a big sale on buffalo burgers...

SD town gets rid of 44 tons of stinking bison meat

OMG, that article made a memory cell go off. A large chain grocery store had a fire which was major enough to close the store, but left the building standing and the frozen food storage area intact. Or so they thought...
Now picture a Pizza Hut next door, but located up a small rise above the parking lot (and upwind). Picture a huge parking lot and no businesses right close by except for PH.
I think it was about a week before the smell seeped out of the building. The cooling units had failed, and nobody detected that until it was too late.
It stunk for a month...even after it was all "cleaned out". The store was re-opened, but it was decided that a brand new building across the street was more desirable.
That Pizza Hut was closed and never re-opened.
The older building is currently a gym.

 

[Nords]

The older building is currently a gym.

So no one would notice the smell now anyway...

 

[Westernskies]

Haven't yet found any local grass-fed ruminants.

I believe Dayton is in Area "A"- check with your local game warden...

 

[harley]

Most of these meat issues could be easily solved with low level irradiation. Americans get sick and die because they are afraid of technology. Again.

 

[RonBoyd]

This is actually an Ad:

YouTube - Fiji Meat Man

 

[M Paquette]

Um...

I think I'm going to stick with my Boca Burgers for those ground beef analogue treats.

Unwritten agreements between some companies appear to stand in the way of ingredient testing. Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies. Slaughterhouses fear that one grinder’s discovery of E. coli will set off a recall of ingredients they sold to others.

The food safety officer at American Foodservice, which grinds 365 million pounds of hamburger a year, said it stopped testing trimmings 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.”

I'm not entirely sure that "Don't ask; Don't tell" is a reasonable policy for food safety procedures. But that's just me.

Perhaps eventually we'll have cheap test probes such as the lab-on-substrate devices used for rapid biohazard evaluations. Ah, but would you be willing to buy those frozen burgers if someone had already punched a sample, and decided to leave that package on the shelf after sampling, rather than purchase it?

 

[freebird5825]

This is actually an Ad:

Fiji Meatman

WHAT was that pink glop at 0:48 ?

 

[audreyh1]

This is actually an Ad:

OMG!

I actually grew up in Fiji. And my sister and brother-in-law still have a house there. I'm going to have to send along this video!

When I was growing up, we drank unpasteurized milk. The local herd was monitored carefully for tuberculosis and other diseases. The food supply was pretty safe.

Notice that they are mostly prepping lamb and pork. Beef was always really expensive there.

And then like a lot of polynesian/Melanesian cultures, potted/canned meat was really popular. In Fiji they preferred canned corn beef to spam (which seems to be Hawaii's favorite meat).

Audrey

 

[audreyh1]

Am I the only one shocked by this? This borders on the unbelievable.

No. Like Nords, after reading Fast Food Nation, and then later the mad cow disease scares, we absolutely do NOT buy standard ground beef in grocery stores and we avoid it in restaurants unless they spell out some special source.

I make an occasional exception for grass-fed beef, organic beef, or bison.

But looks like I had better watch out for that tainted SD bison!

Audrey

 

[haha]

I like that video. But i sure am glad I don't have to be the guy using the bandsaw. I'd guess that more than once his fingers wound up in the sausage.

Ha