E Coli contaminated beef cooked, repackaged and sold as ready-to-eat hamburgers

[JohnyCanuck]

(NaturalNews) There are 14 billion hamburgers consumed each year in the United States alone. The people who eat those burgers, though, have little knowledge of what's actually in them. Current USDA regulations, for example, openly allow beef contaminated with E. coli to be repackaged, cooked and sold as ready-to-eat hamburgers.

This simple fact would shock most consumers if they knew about it. People assume that beef found to be contaminated with E. coli must be thrown out or destroyed (or even recalled), but in reality, it's often just pressed into hamburger patties, cooked, and sold to consumers. This practice is openly endorsed by the USDA.

But E. coli may not be the worst thing in your burger: USDA regulations also allow chicken feces to be used as feed for cows, meaning your hamburger beef may be made of second-hand chicken poop, recycled through the stomachs of cows.

Chicken poop in your burgers?

snip

According to the FDA, farmers feed their cattle anywhere from 1 million to 2 million tons of chicken feces each year. This cross-species crap-as-food practice worries critics who are concerned it may lead to increased risk of mad cow disease contaminating beef products. So they want to ban the practice and disallow the feeding of chicken litter to cows.

http://www.naturalnews.com/027414_disease_cows_mad_cow.html

[Jim__]

1. I suppose you want to burden American business with a bunch of new regulations ...

... and cut into their profit margins. I bet you never ran a business.



Yeah - :sarcasm:

[underseasurveyor]

2. Spoken like a true American Patriot

I salute you Sir:patriot: For standing up for the American way.





Yeah - :evilgrin:

[gateley]

15. Exactly. As I was reading this I was thinking "there's only ONE reason why

our "watchdog" would allow this to happen -- money".

Individually we can take steps to buy locally, organically, but the majority of people TRUST that we're being taken care of. It's so wrong. :(

[Speck Tater]

3. Thorough cooking kills E. Coli. I don't see the problem. nt

[kestrel91316]

8. Correct. And NO ONE with half a brain expects meat, as a biological

product to be even remotely sterile. But heavy contamination with E coli O157H7 (as opposed to regular, harmless E coli) is just asking for a few of those suckers to contaminate cooked product in the processing plant.

Buying any precooked meats is an iffy proposition.

[moc]

31. Shh.... Don't try to introduce rational thinking...

You'll disrupt the outrage.

:spank:

[Toucano]

4. I would have never expected it to be thrown out. What a horrible waste that would be!

When cooked to the proper temperature, E. coli is killed and the meat is safe for consumption.

It is no longer contaminated.

Feeding cattle feces, however, is another matter. Gross!

[DeschutesRiver]

30. They feed all sorts of things you'd never guess to feedlot cattle, for various reasons

I can't find my bookmark to the actual study, but the beef industry was matter of factly studying the results of adding those green scouring scrubbie sponges to the diet of feedlot cattle, to try to get more fiber in their systems. Can't remember whether they found it was a good thing or a bad thing, fiber-wise, but geez.

As of a few years ago, I only eat what I raise, and what they are doing to feedlot cattle in the name of cheap beef and speed is one main reason why. The other equally important one is that what I have chosen to eat in my life gets to live its entire life on hundreds of acres of high desert, never penned in a dirty tiny feedlot, not treated with antibiotics unless there is an illness, rather than as a preventative, never fed grain, and in a complete herd of adults (bull and moms), youngsters and babies doing what cows do while they graze the range here. The day I am too old to raise them anymore is the day I quit eating beef (I've been vegetarian before, I will be again). I won't eat much of what other people are producing now days, esp. in the meat department. They've utterly lost their heads in search of increasing profit.

The following article re what is allowed to be fed to our beef cattle via the feedlot process was written for the National Geographic. It does make mention of how fiber deficient our beef cattle are now, plus I added a bit about what is allowed in cattle feed (the article is a good read but long):

"Farmers have in the past 50 years shifted the diets of beef cattle from hay to grain in order to boost growth rates and reduce costs. "When ruminants are fed fiber-deficient rations," write USDA's James B. Russell and Jennifer Rychlik of Cornell University, "microbial ecology is altered, and the animal becomes more susceptible to metabolic disorders and, in some cases, infectious diseases......

In 1997 the FDA banned the use of rendered remains of dead cattle and sheep in feed for U.S. ruminants, and there is no sign of BSE yet in the U.S. But many consumer groups are concerned that the government rules for animal feed include too many loopholes. Regulations still allow the use of animal blood and blood products as well as pig and horse protein. They also allow poultry to be used in cattle feed and cattle to be used in poultry feed. Is this an effective recycling of animal protein or a breach in a basic ecologic relationship—with serious consequences for our food supply?"

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-body/food-safety.html

[kestrel91316]

5. Just reinforces my belief that the best burger for me is one I ground

and shaped and cooked myself at home.

[tinrobot]

16. One cow, one burger, is the best policy

I only buy quality meat (grass fed, organic, etc) and only buy it in whole cuts. Then I grind it myself. This way, I know EXACTLY what's in my burgers, plus it tastes better and is much healthier.

I bought a really nice electric grinder online for about 50 bucks. Takes less than 10 minutes to grind up a few pounds of chuck roast. It's not that difficult.

[rhett o rick]

18. I'll stick to veggy burgers thank you. Beef is a huge waste of water and grain. nt

[imdjh]

22. It's all about the condiments anyway. What I don't understand is why 100% filler burgers...

... aka veggie burgers, Boca Burgers, Morningstar Farms, Amy's, etc... cost upwards of $4.80/lb and real ground beef costs $1.99 to $4 per pound

[rhett o rick]

24. I believe it's because of the amount of production and sales. The more sales the lower the

profit margin. I dont know any of this, as my wife would say, I am pulling it out of my ..... ear.

[Codeine]

32. Economy of scale.

Hundreds of millions of burgers produced vs. hundreds of thousands of veggie patties. The more you make of anything the cheaper unit cost becomes.

[rhett o rick]

36. Thanks, you said it so much better than me. nt

[kestrel91316]

25. Not if it's grassfed. Most brands of veggie burgers suck.

[rhett o rick]

37. Ahhh, rationalization. "I eat beef burgers because veggie burger suck. "

More power to you. Eat what you want. Everything is a matter of degree. and we all do what we can/

[Ignis]

6. Good thing we have enough FDA inspectors...

...to ensure that every single batch of this meat is cooked thoroughly.

Because meat producers would never, ever cut corners and put the health of the American people at risk, right?

:shrug:

[DainBramaged]

7. Love to eat them mousies, mousies what I love to eat

bite they little heads off, nibble on they tiny feet.....

[kestrel91316]

9. Beef is beef, regardless of what the cow was fed. Chicken poop,

while COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE as feed for cattle, does get broken down and digested before it goes to build muscle in the cow, lol.

ZOMG, composted manure is used to fertilize my organic veggies!!!! When I eat them, I'm eating POOP!!!!!!!! Not.

[FarCenter]

10. Pigs love to eat cow shit

Ever heard of the expression "happy as a pig eating shit"?

Cow shit contains a lot of undigested material and is quite nutritious. For example, if a cow eats grains, such as corn, and doesn't break the grain while chewing, the kernals pass through undigested.

It doesn't affect the pork at all.

[kestrel91316]

11. Pigs are omnivores, like dogs, who also love to eat poop (especially

of the feline variety, lol). Eating poop spreads parasites, but also builds strong bodies twelve ways, lol.

This is why many cultures consider pigs "unclean" and won't eat them.

Cattle are ruminants and strict herbivores, so eating poop is quite inappropriate.

[imdjh]

13. People eat animal shit too. We just don't like to admit it. Shrimp, oysters, clams, crabs...

.... and probably some I haven't thought of and don't want to think about.

[kestrel91316]

26. People are biologically omnivores, just like dogs and pigs.

The militant vegans will try to tell you otherwise, but the facts are on my side.

[imdjh]

12. Happy as a dog eating shit. Happy as a pig in shit. Happy as a clam. I guess clams don't eat shit.

[AllieB]

14. But we eat the clam's intestines.

Yum! :P

[rhett o rick]

19. Are you sure clams dont eat shit? Are they discriminating? nt

[imdjh]

20. One way or another I should think that they do. You can get hep from clams, can't you?

[rhett o rick]

21. I agree. nt

[JonQ]

23. I wonder if anyone else noticed that correlation

Cows fed shit = you're eating shit.

Organic veggies grow in shit = you're eating pure foods straight from mother earths bosom.

And if properly heat treated, ie cooked, E coli is harmless.

Bunch of fear mongering anti-scientific nonsense. And people fell for it.

[Codeine]

33. Let's not get rational, now.

These people want to believe that actual chunks of chicken shit are marbled through their Whopper.

[tinrobot]

17. They also put ammonia in commercial ground beef to kill e-coli

Appetizing, huh?

[Anwen]

27. Gross.

I gave up beef 5 years ago and truly don't miss it. at. all.

[ginnyinWI]

28. what madness.

It reminds me of the movie Soylent Green. They didn't know what they were eating either!

I am so glad I don't eat ground beef anymore. Not in a restaurant, not at home. It's just not safe anymore.

Instead we eat a lot more meatless meals, chicken and fish. Don't even miss it, honest.

[Codeine]

34. I'm vegan,

but I'm also smart enough to know that e. coli dies when you cook it. This article is whackadoodle nonsense.

[Buns_of_Fire]

29. Shhhhh. They'll want to start charging extra for it.

And pretty soon, once the marketing people get up to speed, they'll start labeling it as "NOW! With 20% More Poo!"

[kenny blankenship]

35. A Uniquely American solution to shit in the food supply: make them eat it anyway.

Milo: I want to serve this to the men. Taste it and let me know
what you think.

Yossarian - What is it?
Milo : Chocolate-covered cotton.

Yossarian - (Spits) Are you crazy?
Milo: (worried) No good?

Yossarian - Christsakes, you didn't even take the seeds out!
Milo : Is it really that bad?

Yossarian - IT'S COTTON!
Milo: They've got to learn to like it.
Yossarian - Why?
Milo: I saw an opportunity to corner the market in cotton.
I didn't know there' d be a glut! I've got warehouses full of it
all over Europe. People eat cotton candy right? This is
better, it's made out of real cotton.
Yossarian - People can't eat cotton!
Milo : They've got to, for the Syndicate.
Yossarian - It will make them sick. Try it yourself if you don't believe me.
Milo: I did, and it made me sick.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Cow Floppyburger: may contain like, fillers an' shit. MMmmMMMmmm Good!

[flvegan]

38. Shitburgers. Suck 'em down, folks.

No thanks.