The Beef With Our Beef

Meat can become contaminated during slaughter when it comes into contact with the contents of an animal's intestines, and organisms can be accidentally mixed into meat when it is ground up, according to the CDC. It is eating this meat, especially ground beef, when it has not been cooked sufficiently to kill E. coli O157:H7 that can cause infection. "This particular bug was not a problem before the industrialization of the meat supply," says Michael Pollan, an investigative journalist and food writer. "It's an adaptation to the feedlot diet [which is composed of corn, ethanol byproducts and other grain feed]. Animals who get a proper diet and are outside eating grass don't get much of it. Even if you give the animals fresh hay in the last days of their lives, the E. coli burden drops 80 percent. But it would just screw up the workings of the [industry]. The other way [to reduce risk] is to slow down the lines, if you could butcher with more care."

Others are less convinced there is a system-wide problem. "I think it's shown up in bigger numbers in feedlots probably because it's passed from one animal to another easier," says Len Steiner, an industry consultant who has worked with Topps. "When you pack people together in cities, diseases pass between them easier. If you're living in the plains with five miles between households, you're less likely to get sick. I think it's the nature of the world." Steiner also points out that Americans will consume 28 billion pounds of beef this year and the vast majority of them won't get sick. "The reality is if you cook the meat you'll never have a problem. I eat beef a lot and I may get indigestion from time to time, but I don't get sick. No one will ever get sick if you fully cook the meat. This isn't rocket science." Which may be true, concedes Pollan, but if there is indeed manure in the meat, however microscopic, you're still eating cooked manure.

© 2007