Find your next home with Luxist's "Estate of the Day"

Are our hamburgers still safe?

Posted: Feb 21st 2008 3:30PM by Adams Briscoe
Filed under: Food and Nutrition, Health in the Media

If someone told you that a hamburger could be the riskiest menu item at the next restaurant you go to, it would probably sound alarmist. Escherichia coliform (that's E. coli for the rest of us) is staying in the media, so it's not quite as crazy as it appears. Turns out less than a half of one percent of beef is even tested for the bacteria.

With hundreds of varieties of E. coli, not all of them are harmful. As this article states, estimates suggest that we excrete 10 billion E. coli bacteria every time we go to the bathroom. So what's there to worry about? Well, beef is placed into boxes by the ton before getting processed.

That's 2,000 pounds of pre-hamburger meat. But less than a pound of meat per ton gets analyzed for bacteria! If the tiny amount they tested checks out A-OK, then so does the rest of it. Thousands of pounds of meat get processed this way every day, leaving some people to believe it can be risky. Should you give up burgers altogether now? No way, while the article does raise some questions, you can take steps to ensure you get the safe products. Check it out for more information here.

Related Headlines

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)



That's Fit Features



How many calories burned? What is my BMI?
More weight loss tools!


Daily Fit Tip

Many of us can't run five days a week. At least not forever, especially after injury creep sets in ...

 

Featured Stories

Sponsored Links

Most Commented On (60 days)

Recent Comments


Sites We Love

Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in: