Fast food anyone?

[Guest guest]

BTW this article has a good discussion about microbes in

ground beef ... if it is packed in a commercial packing house,

the author certainly doesn't feel comfortable eating it raw.

(some of you probably DO have cast-iron stomachs, but

for the rest ... )

http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/interviews/ba2000-12-14.htm

Do you think there's a false sense of security, that people in this country

assume that since there's a food safety system in place it must be effective?

With each new E. coli outbreak there is a greater anxiety about the food that we

eat. But there's still an enormous lack of awareness about how our food-safety

system works and how the meatpacking industry has been able to work it. The

industry has for years spread large sums of money throughout the political

process. And the USDA has always had close ties to the industry. If you look

back at Teddy Roosevelt's campaign against the meatpacking industry, you'll find

that the same battle has been fought now for almost a century. It's a battle to

get this industry to assume responsibility for the meat that it sells.

Automobile companies are held responsible for cars that are fundamentally

defective, that explode on impact, etc. But the meatpacking industry has, with

remarkable success, fought every attempt to make it liable for the sale of

contaminated, potentially deadly, meat.

Very few people realize that the U.S. government does not have the power to

order the recall of contaminated meat. The Clinton administration made a sincere

effort to reform the nation's food-safety and inspection program, but the

Republicans in Congress were determined to impede any major overhaul of the

system. So what we wound up with is a watered-down food-safety system. One of

the most remarkable things is that meatpacking companies today are routinely

testing their meat for dangerous pathogens, but don't have to reveal the results

of these tests to the government. A recent investigation by the Inspector

General of the USDA suggested that companies are shipping meat that they've

tested and that they know to be contaminated. By not revealing the test results

to the USDA, they're able to ship this meat. It's incredible what is being sold

in supermarkets throughout the country as we speak.

You warn that " Anyone who brings raw ground beef into his or her kitchen today

must regard it as a potential biohazard, one that may carry an extremely

dangerous microbe, infectious at an extremely low dose. " And you say that the

levels of poultry contamination are even higher. How would you respond to

someone who has always eaten poultry and ground beef, has never been sick, and

who might perceive this as alarmism?

I don't think that I'm being an alarmist. I'm just letting people know what's in

their meat. There's no question that the level of contamination in poultry is

much, much higher, and the level in ground turkey is highest of all. The

pathogens most commonly found in poultry­Salmonella and Campylobacter­are not as

deadly, relatively speaking, as the E. coli 0157:H7 that turns up in ground

beef. Keep in mind, though, that every year about 30,000 Americans are

hospitalized for Salmonella and Campylobacter infections they got from tainted

food. And when the Centers for Disease Control says that there are about 76

million cases of food poisoning in the United States every year, that's not

being alarmist. That's a fact.

As for people who think they've never been sickened by ground beef or poultry,

my response would be: how do you know? The symptoms of food poisoning often

don't appear for days after the contaminated meal was eaten. As a result, most

cases of food poisoning are never properly diagnosed. There may be some people

with cast-iron stomachs who never get sick, and good for them. But there are

millions of people, especially children and the elderly, who are extremely

vulnerable to foodborne pathogens.

By the way, I'm not a vegetarian. I have a lot of respect for people who are

vegetarian for religious or ethical reasons. Despite everything I saw and

learned while researching this book, I'm still a meat eater. But I don't eat

ground beef anymore. I've seen where it comes from and how it's now being made.

One of my favorite dishes in the world used to be steak tartare, which is raw

ground beef seasoned and then served. I think you'd have to be a great

thrill-seeker or out of your mind to eat steak tartare today.