The New York Times recently reviewed the confidential grinding logs and other records of various meat processing companies and interviewed various meat industry personnel. These investigations revealed the ingredients that were in typical hamburger meat sold by meat processing companies to grocers and fast-food restaurants and thus ultimately sold to consumers.

In particular, the ground beef study focused on the origination of ground beef patties that were found to contain E. Coli and were the subject of a October 2007 recall of over 844,000 pounds of ground beef by the large food company, Cargill. Tragically, the tainted ground beef patties also resulted in one Minnesota woman becoming paralyzed, from the waist down, after eating a contaminated ground beef patty.

The investigation found the contaminated ground beef patties to be composed of the following ingredients:

• Fresh Fat - Approximately 35% of the ground beef. Fresh fat is the fatty edges around whole cuts of beef. This meat is typically 50% fat and 50% meat.
• Fresh Lean - Approximately 35% of the ground beef. This meat came from trimmings from old dairy cows and bulls that were typically not strong enough, young enough or otherwise worthy enough to be fattened in feedlots. Trimmings are miscellaneous beef parts and fat that is removed from the bones, and near the hides and other extremities, ususally using advanced meat recovery methods. Trimmings are not whole, primal cuts of meat.
• Frozen Lean - Approximately 20% of the ground beef. These trimmings came from grass fed cattle. Grass fed cattle is typically leaner than corn fed cattle.
• Lean Finely Textured Beef - Approximately 10% of the ground beef. These trimmings were run through a high speed centrifuge to remove fat from the meat and treated with ammonia to kill any bacteria.

The four ingredients above were sourced from meat processsing plants in the following locations:

• Omaha, Nebraska
• San Angelo, Texas
• Uruguay
• Dakota, Dunes, South Dakota

As seen, Cargill, the company that sold the contaminated ground beef, sourced the meat and trimmings for their ground beef from multiple suppliers at multiple worldwide locations. This, along with the meat and trimming parts themselves, helps contribute to the difficulty in producing ground beef that is free of food borne pathogens like E. Coli or salmonella.

How can you buy and eat healthier and pathogen free ground beef? One solution; buy whole, primal cuts of meat and grind the meat at home using a meat grinder.

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Published 12/12/2009 12:00:00 AM

Tags: Ground Beef