And would you like E. coli with that burger?

[Jane in NC]

A detailed investigation in the New York Times reveals problems within the meat processing industry that won't surprise many readers on this board. If you want to read how one woman's life has been shattered by food-borne illness, click here.

 

Jane

[smrtmama]

A detailed investigation in the New York Times reveals problems within the meat processing industry that won't surprise many readers on this board. If you want to read how one woman's life has been shattered by food-borne illness, click here.

 

Jane

 

And that is why we buy locally raised, locally processed, grassfed pastured beef.

[Sara K]

I can't afford to pay locally grown meat so after learning about commercially raised meat growing my own became a major priority for us.

 

We now raise pork, beef, chicken and lamb. Plus we get milk, eggs and some income to offset the time and cost :-) the only downside is a store-bought eggs are now completely unappetizing to me!!!

[Daisy]

Ewwwww, so glad we buy locally organic beef. Even with that we rarely eat hamburger meat. Yikes.

[nmoira]

My favourite part:

 

The ingredients came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas and Uruguay, and from a South Dakota company that processes fatty trimmings and treats them with ammonia to kill bacteria. Using a combination of sources — a practice followed by most large producers of fresh and packaged hamburger — allowed Cargill to spend about 25 percent less than it would have for cuts of whole meat.

 

 

 

Those low-grade ingredients are cut from areas of the cow that are more likely to have had contact with feces, which carries E. coli, industry research shows. Yet Cargill, like most meat companies, relies on its suppliers to check for the bacteria and does its own testing only after the ingredients are ground together.

The information about origins and chemicals used to treat should be on the packaging.

 

I get my ground beef fresh ground (grass fed and local when possible), and by people with whom I'm on a first name basis.

[gingersmom]

It was such a disturbing article and so sad for the poor young girl who is now paralyzed.

 

My daughter eats no red meat and neither do I. My son eats it in extremely tiny amounts.

 

Very very scary.

[Jane in NC]

My favourite part: The ingredients came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas and Uruguay, and from a South Dakota company that processes fatty trimmings and treats them with ammonia to kill bacteria. Using a combination of sources — a practice followed by most large producers of fresh and packaged hamburger — allowed Cargill to spend about 25 percent less than it would have for cuts of whole meat.

 

 

 

As I footnote to your quote above, I will add:

 

"In examining Cargill, investigators discovered that their own inspectors had lodged complaints about unsanitary conditions at the plant in the weeks before the outbreak, but that they had failed to set off any alarms within the department."

 

Clearly some companies are not capable of self-regulation. I agree with the others who choose to buy locally from farmers whose names one knows.

 

Ugh. If the producer of the meat product will not clean up its act, perhaps the grocery outlets which retail their products should demand better testing. The tainted meat in the article was sold at Sam's Club. But I did not see any mention of the Walmart Corporation altering their method of doing business.

[Heather in WI]

So sad!

 

After seeing Food, Inc., we decided we could never again buy grain fed, CAFO beef.

 

We have been waiting for 6 weeks, but on Friday, we finally picked up our half of half of a pasture fed cow that we nicknamed Mrs. McCheeseburger. We found the farm on http://www.eatwild.com/