Consumer Reports Just Issued a Horrifying Warning About Ground Beef

If you haven’t hopped on the organic craze yet, this might push you over the edge. In its recent report called “How Safe is Your Ground Beef?” Only 1 percent contained salmonella, but that can add up to the potential of millions getting sick.

In its report published Monday, Consumer Reports discovered E. coli or other bacteria consistent with fecal contamination in all 300 packages of ground beef that it tested.

Although all meat can contain bacteria that can cause food poisoning if not properly cooked, ground beef is especially risky.

Most of the country’s beef is processed by four companies that can slaughter about 400 cattle an hour – meaning it’s hard for the US Department of Agriculture to adequately inspect all the plants, the magazine noted.

One of the most significant findings of our research is that beef from conventionally raised cows was more likely to have bacteria overall, as well as bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, than beef from sustainably raised cows.

Scary news, although those in favor of conventionally produced meat, like Mindy Brashears, a Texas Tech University food safety professor, still say the beef industry in the US is safe.

The report finds that beef raised as “sustainable”, where the cows are grass-fed and free of antibiotics, contain less instances of harmful bacteria than “conventionally produced” ground beef where the cows are raised on feedlots, fed grain, and given antibiotics.

“There’s no way to tell by looking at a package of meat or smelling it whether it has harmful bacteria or not”, Urvashi Rangan, Ph.D., executive director of the Center for Food Safety and Sustainability at Consumer Reports, told yahoo.com. “That has nothing to do with the farmer or the beef producer”.

Approximately 10 to 20 percent of these samples, which were purchased across the country, were contaminated with other types of bacteria that can cause illness in addition to fecal bacteria.

The biggest take-away from this test, according to Consumer Reports, is that routine use of antibiotics in conventional cattle operations is a major problem in our food system. A significant amount also had superbugs, bacteria resistant to three or more classes of antibiotics.

“Superbugs are bacteria that are no longer treatable with antibiotics”, Dr. Booren said.

Samples for five common types of bacteria found on beef were tested-clostridium perfringens, E. coli (including O157 and six other toxin-producing strains), enterococcus, salmonella, and staphylococcus aureus. Organic beef is even better, says Consumer Reports, because it also guarantees the animal wasn’t fed any feed grown with pesticides or synthetic fertilizers.

The organization also recommended that consumers look for “meaningful animal welfare labels” when purchasing ground beef.