Good Hamburger, Bad Hamburger

In America, one of the most popular known types of food is the hamburger. Even though it is very popular, most people have no idea of the health issues when choosing a type of hamburger. Usually, the cheaper cuts of so called “meat” is bought buy customers, which is understandable if the buyer is ignorant when it comes to choosing quality over price. Little do they know that even the most popular brands of meat can be as life-threatening as other brands when consumed simply because of little, but important, processes left out when the producers receive, grind, and test the meat. Stephanie Smith had eaten dinner with her family that included hamburgers, similar to many dinners in America. She became sick within a few days, but thought she only had the flu. Later, it turned out to be much worse. Her illness, known as 0157:H7, was caused by E. Coli in a hamburger, which is very serious and had left her paralyzed for nine weeks. Even though she is one of the unfortunate hundreds in the U.S. who have contracted this illness, the problem has not become as bad as it could be. So far, tens of thousands of Americans have had a serious illness or disease as a result of poor meat products. Because of this laziness, the health administration has taken a closer look at what really happens in these factories. A major change in the way meat has been processed has resulted from a serious illness caused from bad meat.
It is appalling what the real structure of a single slice of hamburger actually contains. According to a video posted on the article, the burger that Stephanie Smith ate contained meat from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas, and even Uruguay, where meat is subjected to less scrutiny than domestic supplies. As if that wasn’t enough, many companies add meat derivatives to cut the cost of using real meat and instead use products that resemble what they sell. For Stephanie's burger, Cargill added bread crumbs and spices to a certain group of beef and froze them packed 18 to a carton. The meat derivative is a sure way to save some money and it also has a less chance of being contaminated with bacteria and viruses, but the quality of the meat is much worse and when consumers learn about this way of cutting corners, they are less likely to purchase their product.
Companies such as Cargill have the choice of what kind of meat they want to sell, meaning they can choose from different sections of the cow. Many times the different cuts come from different parts of the cow and some parts are in the lower section, where it may come in contact with feces, the main location of E. Coli. Also, when the intestines are removed, contaminated feces can come in contact with the parts of meat that are used for grinding, although that is a mistake that can be made by any company. This is the most reasonable conclusion for why Stephanie had been contaminated with E. Coli.
Even though Stephanie was only one who is mentioned in the article, there are many others who have been affected from poor meat. Beginning in 1994, an outbreak at Jack in the Box restaurants left four children dead. Tens of thousands are sickened each year from E. Coli. In the past three years, ground beef has been blamed for 16 outbreaks and contamination has led to the recall of beef from about 3,000 grocers in 41 states. These statistics are shocking, but not all companies can be accused of producing poor quality meat. For example, Costco tests their meat at least twice before sending it out, while most companies don’t bother to test it once, simply because of cost. Even Greater Omaha takes some safety measures like washing the meat with hot water and lactic acid before cutting them, but they skip other important safety procedures that Costco goes through. There is no foolproof process to remove all the germs and bacteria from every cut of meat, but every company should take all possible steps to remove what they can.
The steps to lessen the chance of people getting viruses are very simple, but the reason why some are ignored are because of cost. The meat producers should know that they will loose money in the long run if they choose to do what is cheaper because, sooner or later, someone will become ill from bad meat and decide to sue for more than the company can imagine. Cargill says that it costs too much to test all the meat for strains of E. Coli, but companies such as Costco test their meat before grinding and have not had nearly the amount of problems Cargill has had to go through. Also, companies such as Tyson refuse to supply their meat to Costco because Costco would test the meat and either toss the bad meat or refuse to receive from Tyson because of the poor quality.
Most people are told from a very early age that when you do something, do it right the first time. Therefore, there is no need to do it again and again. This article focuses on the meat companies, but any company, large or small, should learn from the point of this incident. There are rules to follow for a reason. When something such as a draft guideline issued by the U.S.D.A. is urged to test ingredients for bacteria, then it should be taken to consideration rather than ignored because of a small loss of profit. Cargill chose to gamble with peoples lives to raise profit, but their mistakes have caught up with them and now they will learn the hard way. The solution to their problem is right in front of their faces. There shouldn’t be any debate over what is the better. Make your product safe for the consumer by following the appropriate rules and regulations. We can only hope now that Cargill has learned their lesson and decided to make drastic changes to the way they run things, but, for now, all we have is promises of change and attempts at making the public feel safer when choosing Cargill’s meat products.

Analysis for E.Coli

Indentify the main argument-
Most meat producers of fresh and packaged hamburgers have cut corners to lessen the cost of producing meat. Because of this, there has not been enough inspection of meat, which leads to contaminated food sold to the public.
Statics-
Ground beef has been blamed for 16 outbreaks in the last 3 years.
Out of 224 meat plants that were inspected, 55 were found with serious problems, showing that there were failing to follow their own safety plans.
Authority figures-
“Ground beef is not a completely safe product.” –Dr. Jeffery Bender
“In a warn kitchen, E. Coli cells will double every 45 minutes.” –Dr. Mansour Samadpour
“Not all slaughterhouses are looking hard enough for contamination.” –Dennis R. Johnson
Common sense-
“Ground beef is not a completely safe product.”
Alternate ways of action-
All meat companies should have strict rules to follow when testing their products because their laziness is putting people’s lives at risk.

E. Coli

Stephanie Smith had eaten a hamburger that had given her a severe food-borne illness caused by E. Coli, which resulted in her having to be in a coma for 9 weeks. Read it here. Many companies have not tested their products for this bacteria because there is no federal requirement for this inspection. There should be a requirement for this testing since peoples lives are definitly in danger if there is no reason to check food products for deadly bacteria such as E. Coli.