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Valerie Phillips: What happened to the well-done hamburger?

Read "Toxin" by Robin Cook. (It's a work of fiction written by an M.D., but it's very educational about the process of creating ground beef and the potential hazards that accompany it.) It forever changed my habits concerning ground beef. Know where it's coming from and cook it thoroughly!

It does not matter where it came from it must bee cooked to kill potential pathogens. Resturants that do not cook burgers to well done will soon be sued out of business. All it takes is one person getting sick.

I don't even want to know about weenies....

Actually, it does matter where the ground beef comes from. In a single batch of hamburger you can have freshly ground beef and ground beef that is up to 2-3 weeks old that has red coloring added to it to make it look fresh. You can have cattle from the U.S. and cattle from foreign countries, all in the same batch of ground beef. Your safest bet is to purchase your ground beef from a company that does its own grinding of beef cuts on the premises. Many stores purchase a kind of premix of ground beef from their suppliers and then they add to it and put it thru another grind before packaging it for sale. That means you're getting older stuff mixed in with newer stuff from who knows where and from how long ago and the potential for contamination has gone up. Now maybe you trust these companies and the beef inspectors, etc. all along that chain. I don't. Sure, always cook to doneness. But that's only part of the equation. Where the ground beef comes from and how it's been processed matters too.

if you dont trust the health inspectors, then you cant technically eat anything. sure it could matter where it comes from, and cooking thoroughly is definately an important thing to do. but if you are looking to avoid all problems and risks, then you are wasting your time. even if you do take these "precautions" or whatever you would call them, you cant eliminate the potential dangers of eating beef.

what exactly was the point of this article? i think everyone already knows that you should be cautious. and no one can eliminate potential dangers whether its cook well enough or not. there is always the danger. how do you eat anything if you dont trust health inspectors?

What I got from the article is that some restaurants routinely don't cook burgers thoroughly, and if you values your own stomach you should ask about that when you order.Some very good points! Or else, I guess you could bring your own meat thermometer along in your pocket to test the temperature before eating.

If you think you can get a rare burger here, try Europe. I'd forgotten how pink they like their burgers. Sometimes it's safer to be a vegatarian...but then again, what about the spinach e coli scare? Yikes, what's a girl to eat? I'd better stick with Christmas cookies.

if you want your burger well done...
when ordering say: "I'll take the burger - well done- please! "