General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: There's a 25% chance your supermarket ground beef contains antibiotic-resistant fatal bacteria [View all]kenny blankenship
(15,689 posts)As I had been self-exiled from eating hamburgers out of fear of E. coli O157:H7 poisoning for about 15 YEARS before I found about grinding beef at home. That's way too long to live without a hamburger, and if I can spare anyone else that kind of deprivation I am happy do it.
We always have to keep an eye on the news however, because the germs keep evolving. This past year's E. coli O104:H4 outbreak in Europe was the worst ever seen, in terms of the virulence of the new strain. The 18 people who died experienced the kinds of nightmarish symptoms one associates more with plagues like the Ebola virus than "food poisoning". And the vector of the poisoning - which was uncooked vegetables, apparently- is as insidious as the effects were horrible. People can say what they like about red meat, but I never thought I'd live to see the day when eating a green salad could kill you. Fortunately this new strain is no more resistant to heat than its predecessors.