ideefixe:
I usually pick out the meat I want, at the butchers and he grinds it for me.

Thanks for putting in the link for E Coli.
LOU

We purchase grass-fed ground beef. It's raised by a friend and processed one animal at a time at a small packing plant. Because the beef is grass-fed, there is less E. coli to begin with.

"A study by Cornell University has determined that grass-fed animals have far fewer E. coli (approx. 300 times less) than their grain fed counterparts. Also in the same study, the amount of E. coli they do have is much less likely to survive our first line defense against infection, stomach acid. This is because feeding cattle grain makes their digestive tract abnormally acid, and over time, the 'bad E. coli' has become acid-resistant."

-Grainlady

The scariest part was about how the system protects the source and type of products added to the ground beef. No way will I purchase ground beef. I usually don't but I've often thought about purchasing the ready formed frozen patties for hamburgers but we end up just not buying that much and sticking to our usual fare. Now, we have to think about restaurant hammburgers.

I don't know anything about anything. That disclaimer aside, what I've seen recently about e Coli contamination in spinach, etc. has seemed to be a very serious thing, subject to recalls, etc. I've eaten ground beef more than weekly for the majority of my forty-plus years, and I have yet to land in the hospital for food poisoning. I give this news a great, big, WHATEVER. Of couse if there were a specific source at a specific time I'd do all I could to protect my family and me. But I wouldn't rule out ground beef on a whole.

FOAS:
I don't know if getting the beef ground at my butchers is better but I'm going to keep doing it

Not worth saving a couple of dollars and not knowing what you are eating, or where it has been.
Lou

I mostly grind my own beef, but just because it's generally cheaper to do it myself than to buy it already ground.

These sorts of scare stories are things reporters/editors dredge up because sensationalism sells.

If you could find accurate stats, that weren't put out by someone with an ax to grind, my bet is that any number of activities that the average person engages in on a given day are far more dangerous than eating a hamburger.

I'd bet a lot that more people die from slipping in their bath tub or shower or falling down their stairs than die from eating hamburgers in this country, but we don't decide to take sponge baths and eschew multi-story buildings. I KNOW that more people die in car accidents, but we don't give up our cars.

If any given restaurant, market or producer is proven to be negligent, go after them. But otherwise, I'm not going to worry about it.

One more thing to make me glad I grow my own, and grass fed too. If we insist on raising animals in a inhumane and unhealthy manner and feed them a diet they were never meant to eat, it's going to cause health problems for us and for the animals.

Annie

Rachel:
A lot of what you said is true but I don't think the fact that a young woman is paralyized or,
children died should be ignored completely.

I had a 5 year old niece that was killed by a Drunk driver.
Should we ignore this, because more drivers are killed on the highways ???

I think we are hurt more by the things that are not published or
not put into our tv news. But nothing is done about this .

Personally, I will consider any info about bad food, that is published and the source.

After the thing about Chickens, I try to find where the chicken has been processed, before I buy.

Where does it end ???
LOU

The E. coli that is killing people is a virulent strain bred by two factors. One is, as mentioned, the feeding of grain which makes ruminants digestive tracts alkaline. The other is the use of low level antibiotics, given on a regular basis, both to increase appetite and to hold down the infections rampant in animals in feed lots. Feed lotting is a dreadful way for animals to spend their last days--up to their knees in feces and mud, is not used in Europe, and is relatively new in the US. Even thirty years ago, that virulent E. coli did not exist. Our industrial agricultural practices are making our food toxic and in some cases, killing us.

I didn't say it should be ignored. I think I said, "if any given restaurant, market or producer is proven to be negligent, go after them."

Every day it seems that there is yet another thing that we have to either eat or not eat, another inconvenience we must go through, another reason we should eat a more highly priced food item rather than the less expensive version of the same thing. Somebody died here, somebody got sick there, so we all should be terrified into doing whatever it is that some group or other likely has a vested interest in our doing.

What is never mentioned in these reports about one or three or a hundred people in well over 300 million Americans does not a high risk make.

By the way, with a quick Google, I found a recent study that says "organic and naturally raised beef cattle are just as prone to E. coli O157:H7 as conventially raised animals."

Sometimes, we just have to accept that no matter how careful we are, people sometimes get sick, and sometimes die.

Does this mean we shouldn't take reasonable precautions? Of course not. But neither does it mean, at least for me, that we should spend our life fretting and worrying over every alarmist claim made by people with their own agendas.

Here is a link that might be useful: E. coli Prevalent in Organic Beef

I don't think the NYT is an alarmist outfit. Cargill was clearly negligent, and it's a well-researched, well-reported story. It's not grass-fed bs. feed-lot, or even imported beef, it's the processing.

Rachel:
Read my first sentence again.

I read one of your's again.
"what is never mentioned in these reports, about one or three or a hundred people,in well over 300 million ,
does not a high risk make."

That's true in mnay other reports, also.
But would you want it spread amongst 300 million people,
before it is reported.
I would rather know what was going to kill me beforehand.
It would be better if people focused on the Tv news Media.
Have them put all the News on TV. Not what they want you to hear.
Lou
PS: do you still love me.

I think the answer is cooking to 155 degrees F. Use a quick read thermometer and be extremely careful in your prep areas, cutting surfaces, and utensils to prevent cross contamination.

Cooties are simply one of the facts of life when food is grown and handled by anybody, anywhere. Great sources of local food is a good idea but still no guarantee.

Restaurants are regulated and tested but in reality cutbacks in local health departments have spread the inspectors thin and spaced far apart. The market itself does a pretty good good job regulating offenders. When a person calls the authorities with a "I got sick at so and so restaurant" claim, an inspection insues and places found wanting are public record and often published in local news.

I know what takes place behind the serving window and anything could happen from an infected dishwasher, a sneeze into the country gravy, or a peice of food dropped on the very dirty floor (the 5 second rule applies almost everywhere). Even armed with this knowledge, I continue to eat out and love it. Life itself is a risk. If I had an immune system that was highly vulnerable I'm sure I would not be so cavalier. But I don't and I love a Mexican street taco...

michaelp

laceyvail - that's not correct. The low level use of antibiotics contributes to antibiotic-resistant bacteria, but that is not how E. coli O157:H7 arose.

Bacteria are constantly evolving and constantly sharing genetic information. Sometimes that gives rise to a new pathogen and that is most likely what occurred with EcO157H7. There have been numerous studies of its lineage.

I am a microbiologist but I still eat ground beef. I mostly eat grass-fed beef raised down the road from me, but I will eat store-bought ground beef as well. I do, however, cook it thoroughly, as michael says.

There are other procedures with ground beef that weren't mentioned in the article, including irradiation being used as a method of decreasing E: coli surface contamination. It's been approved in the U.S. since 1997 but is regulated as a food additive, as is the rosemary oleoresin to bring the darker color irradiation produces back to the lighter shade of red that consumers prefer. I've followed this procedure since the Wegmans chain became one of the first in the U.S. to irradiate ground beef.

I personally think that packaging ground beef by replacing the oxygen surrounding the raw meat with a combination of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other gases to keep the meat looking fresh long after E: coli or other bacteria have had extra days to multiply is one of the contributing causes of the increase in home contamination.

I'm sure everyone here is aware that even if the color is nice and red and fresh-looking but it smells funny, it 's spoiled. But not every consumer knows the other meat packaging "tricks of the trade" and that should have been part of the story.