Sad to see the all-American easy mainstay meal, the hamburger, disappear from the list of dinner possibilities: Grill nites or just hang-out why not have a burger nite! Simple answer: One more, maybe definitive story about the strong possibility of getting E.coli from ground meat. Just let me warn you: This investigative piece is not for the faint of heart!

Sure we could be butchers or grinders and take out our Cuisinarts and hope they were strong enough to wrestle a hefty piece of meat such as a chuck roast and grind it into a burger. That’s a big maybe. Or we could find a trusty, local butcher. Good luck on that, talk about a vanishing breed. Trust may be the bigger issue. While we’ve been reading labels on so many products and deciding whether to buy the 80-20 or 90-10 package, we’ve been ignoring the fearsome possibility of getting the ultimate bacterial infection with all its scary consequences.

What’s one to do? The US government site immediately refreshed its E.coli information link on its site. Sure we can manage the temperature part of avoiding the  scary consequence, but what do we know about meals we purchase or those we order in a restaurant? How comfortable are we about asking the necessary, detailed questions? Are we better off just moving away from the ground beef discussion? What about ground turkey or ground chicken?

In the lengthy, graphic New York Times piece, Costco seems to come out a winner. Another possible bright spot is Whole Foods with its policy about grinding the product fresh at each store. This is the type of information we need to feel safe. Then it is up to us to prepare it properly.

Cooked ground meat cannot sit around. Food safety demands strict adherence to temperature and holding guidelines. Yes, some of the onus is on us, but we need to know what we have. Manufacturers have to be honest about the process. The end result is far too scary. The burger may look good enough to eat; we just need to understand its history!

A veggie burger is gaining appeal!