New E.Coli Outbreak - Ground beef

[Dace]

You do make a good point Pat...I mean what we don't know about we don't really care about. Like us here discussing feedlots and meat processing horrors as related to E coli, but the general public discussing E coli is probably wondering who didn't wash their hands or are just bewildered that these bugs are getting thru to us.

We just happen to know a bit more about the whole process.

You also do make a good point about pasture raised meat...if it is processed at the same plant as feed lot meat and in the same numbers (which is part of the problem as well) the it doesn't matter how the animal was cared for prior to it's trip thru processing, you still stand the chance of picking up nasties.

 

[me&thegals]

So I think that a large fraction of the issue is more psychological than actual.

I would tend to agree. I don't even buy antibacterial soap anymore. However, a local news article about a young woman paralyzed as a result of her E. coli infection has got me newly thinking about it and very, very glad that we don't buy hamburger any more.

 

[2dream]

Wow, I started this thread and I had hamburger for lunch today. LOL

I do hope it wasn't contaminated. Funny how we do things without thinking. I am a hamburger addict. Along with a few other things.

Yeah, Pat, I have thought about all that other stuff - well, I did once anyway. Now I try not to. I think if we all thought about it to much we would have to learn to live off of just thinking about food instead of actually consuming any.


Edited because after all these years I still can't spell.

 

[Farmfresh]

Part of the problem is in QUANTITY processed. If you kill one animal you can keep the contamination to a manageable amount. If you run 100 animals through the processing plant and then throw pieces of all of those animals into a single pile and then GRIND those 100 animals up into a single product, all you have to do is contaminate ONE of those animals then the whole product gets contaminated.

After contamination occurs you further compound the problems by shipping that contaminated product all over the planet. Some people can handle it and some get sick or die from it.

And how many times is it only parts of 100 animals in the pile? Most commercial plants process FAR more than that each day. I just read a survey that said the average poultry plants process between 425 and 325,000 birds a day with the average around 40,000. They use water to scald the chickens to remove feathers and to chill and cool the carcasses. How many chickens or turkeys are floating around in the same water at a time?

That is the problem. That is why people are getting sick and dying. There is very little our ancestors could EVER do to their food in the past, that is more disgusting and dangerous than what we do to our food these days.

My small family owned butcher shop (the one we use NOT one we own) does SMALL amounts of animals. Each animal is kept basically separate since they belong to different people who have custom ordered how their animal is to be processed. They do beef one day. Totally clean the plant. Pork on another day. Total clean. Sheep next. Etc.. Contamination is lessened. I am happy.

 

[FarmerChick]

hey FF

my slaughterhouse is like that. Kevin does hog one day, beef another etc. and it does make for better control just like you said.

but E Coli can come from so much. That one restaurant that killed like 3 people and made 100 sick. The mexican employees butchered a goat in the kitchen the night before without knowledge of the restaurant. There ya go, boom, people sick and dead.

the more controlled and individual any processing is can be more safe, but I also see that one goat being processed and boom, people are sick.

Hmm...crapshoot in life even if we do take alot of safe measures.

 

[Farmfresh]

If I am going to roll my dice and take chances I am going to gamble on that family owned business that has catered to the local farmer for the last 30 years. They stand to lose more than a huge commercial enterprise and care about the customers more. Many are their neighbors!

 

[Dace]

Plus consider the guys who butchered the goat without permission may very well have NOT known what they were doing. Very likely that they mishandled the meat and obviously did not clean up well.

Butchering an animal in a restaurant where not all food is cooked making it easy to cross contaminate is beyond foolish!