Originally posted by LePaul
What's scary is....how much of this e-coli stuff was around 20-30 years ago, but wasnt tested for or known about?
E-coli has always been around. In properly cooked food it is killed. It is imperative to cook hamburger meat all the way through with no red in the middle. It is not like a steak where it is safe to be cooked rare.
The difference being that when hamburger is ground, all the outside surface is mixed through and through. Any contamination on the outside is mixed in.
Another point to note about hamburger is the color. When the meat is ground, oxygen mixes in and will cause the meat to turn brown from the inside out... the leaner the meat the more noticeable and quicker this occurs. Doesn't mean it's bad... just the way meat does after touching air.
Same thing happens to steaks. Once they see air you can lay them on top of eachother as in a family pack... and when you part them you can see a dark area where the upper steak layed on the lower steak.
You'll see more of this type recall in the future as less and less meat is processed at your local store anymore. More than half is processed at a central location where a contamination of this sort will affect much more meat at one time.
OK next week, for you chicken lovers, we'll discuss Salmonella. Till then have a nice flight!
