Ground beef and ground beef patties affected by the recall were sent to distributors in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Michigan
An Illinois meat wholesaler has recalled more than 6,700 pounds of beef over fears of a possible E. coli contamination.
Valley Meats and the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced the recall on New Year’s Eve.
The recall affected packages of ground beef and ground beef patties shipped to distributors in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Michigan. The products were then shipped to restaurants and retail stores. A full list of affected products is on the FSIS website.
Doesn’t cooking kill e.coli?
If cooked well done yes. That means a uniform 160° in the meat or hotter.
A lot of places do not do this with their meat, especially hamburgers. Thus, they rely on low population of the virus that can be mostly killed at a uniform 145°.
If the population of the virus is high uncooked, not enough is killed at 145° to be deemed safe to eat.
This is also why immunocompromised people must eat well done burgers. There is no population of the virus above zero that’s safe for them.
*bacteria
E. Coli is a bacterium and not a virus. Otherwise you are probably correct. I assume you mean Fahrenheit and not Celsius.
Yes, but people who order a burger medium can still get sick. Not to mention heightened risk of cross contamination with ready to eat foods.
It’s just safer to not use meat from a source known to have food-borne bacteria. Food safety is designed with many layers of protection, if you already know the first layer has failed, an unsafe source of food, then you’re now counting on kitchen staff to protect you.
Not to say kitchen staff are inherenrly unreliable, but during a weekend dinner rush with low pay and high pressure, things can go wrong, so it’s just best to take out food that is already a risk.
A large enough amount of it will affect the taste of the meat, this is because you’re eating the waste and corpses of bacterium.