{"id":42974,"date":"2015-08-26T13:15:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T17:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/?p=42974"},"modified":"2021-05-13T07:08:10","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T11:08:10","slug":"news-ground-beef-burgers-consumer-reports-082615","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/health\/news-ground-beef-burgers-consumer-reports-082615\/","title":{"rendered":"A Healthier Grilling: Why You Should Rethink Ground Beef at Your Next BBQ"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Why
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you\u2019re like many Americans right now, you\u2019ve probably got a package of ground beef (or two) sitting in your fridge, waiting to be tossed on the grill for one of your last barbecues of summer<\/a>. But a new study from Consumer Reports<\/em><\/a> is revealing some disturbing new information about what might be lurking in your burger meat \u2014 and it\u2019s not pretty.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> You\u2019ll Never Guess How Many Processed Foods Americans Consume<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll warn you now: You might not want to read this while eating your lunch. In a test of more than 300 packages of ground beef (that\u2019s 1,832 quarter-pounders to you), researchers found that every single one<\/em> contained bacteria indicating fecal contamination. (Yup, we mean poop.) Plus, 20 percent of the samples contained C. perfringens<\/em>, a type of bacteria that is linked to a whopping one million food poisoning cases every year, according to Consumer Reports.<\/p>\n

In what might seem like good news, only one percent of the samples contained salmonella. But Urvashi Rangan, Ph.D., executive director of the Center for Food Safety and Sustainability<\/a> at Consumer Reports says, \u201cExtrapolate that to the billions of pounds of ground beef we eat every year, and that\u2019s a lot of burgers with the potential to make you sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> Can This Device Save You From Food Poisoning?<\/a><\/p>\n

Get Smart About Buying Ground Beef<\/strong><\/h3>\n

But hey, we\u2019re not suggesting you give up ground beef for good. (If you want to, though, here\u2019s an awesome veggie burger recipe<\/a> to get you started). You just need to wise up about what you\u2019re purchasing \u2014 like what to look for on the labels \u2014 and pay attention when you\u2019re dining out, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe suggest that you choose what\u2019s labeled \u2018grass-fed organic beef\u2019 whenever you can,\u201d Rangan said in a press release. Consumer Reports<\/em> found that ground beef from conventionally raised cows (the ones that eat grain and soy, and receive lots of antibiotics to prevent disease) are more likely to contain bacteria than beef from sustainably raised animals<\/a>. But, it can still be a guessing game to a degree. \u201cThere\u2019s no way to tell by looking at a package of meat or smelling it whether it has harmful bacteria or not,\u201d Rangan adds.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> The Dirty Dozen: What to Buy Organic<\/a><\/p>\n

You might also want to avoid ordering burgers rare or medium-rare (cooked to a temperature under 160\u00b0 F). Whereas bacteria generally live only on the surface of a cut of steak<\/a> (where it can be easily cooked off), it can linger even in the middle of ground beef. That means it needs to be cooked more thoroughly to kill off the bad stuff.<\/p>\n

The moral of the story: Shop for ground beef with care \u2014 and be sure to cook it to at least medium temperature (or order it to the same). And while you\u2019re at it, check out these seven grilling tips for a healthier summer barbecue<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ground beef you use in your burgers might contain some seriously gross stuff. Here\u2019s what you need to know about the latest BBQ news \u2014 and how to avoid getting sick. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":42976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,425,7,9],"tags":[155,51,251,80,90,341,381],"class_list":["post-42974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diet-nutrition","category-dinner","category-health","category-recipes","tag-dinner","tag-food-choices","tag-news","tag-protein","tag-summer","tag-tax1living-well","tag-tax2low-carb-diets"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}