Makes Me Think Twice About Eating Burgers

The featured article on the front page of Sunday's New York Times is titled "The Burger That Shattered Her Life."  It is about the risk folks run eating hamburger meat.

There were several takeaways from that article, in my opinion.

1. You can avoid many food-borne illnesses by properly cooking your meat - use a thermometer!
2. Keep your hands and countertops clean when you're cooking.  E. coli cells double every 45 minutes in a warm kitchen.
3. Hamburger meat can be comprised of a whole lot of odds and ends, sourced from different suppliers in different countries.  And here I thought it was from one cow.  Good grief!  But leaner is better, and not just because of the lower fat content.
   
4. Some components of some types of ground beef are treated with AMMONIA to kill bacteria.
5. Costco is one of the few big producers that tests for E. coli before grinding.
   

My conclusion: go organic or go vegetarian -  but if you must eat meat, USE A THERMOMETER TO COOK IT.