On Tuesday the Kansas City Star published the final installment of “Beef’s Raw Edges,” its three-day investigative series examining the current state of the U.S. beef industry. The project was spearheaded by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Mike McGraw. The work follows a yearlong investigation during which The Star was
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Food Safety Advocates to USDA: Require Labeling for Tenderized Meat
A group of food safety advocates is calling on the Obama Administration to make good on its proposal to require labeling for mechanically tenderized meat. In a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Friday, the Safe Food Coalition called on the agency to require that mechanically tenderized meat bear
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E. Coli Tests Spur Recall of Tenderized Beef in Maine
Town and Country Foods of Greene, ME, is recalling about 2,057 pounds of ground and mechanically tenderized beef that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced Wednesday.
The company’s own lab testing confirmed a positive result for E.
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Hagen: Tenderized Steaks Should Be Labeled
Unbeknownst to most consumers, many steaks sold in America are mechanically tenderized, a process that makes meat more tender but can transfer bacteria into the center of the steak. Though the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends consumers cook these non-intact steaks to a higher internal temperature to kill bacteria, they
FSIS Should Require Labeling for Tenderized Steaks
On Christmas Eve 2009, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced that National Steak and Poultry was recalling 248,000 pounds of mechanically tenderized beef products contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.
Within days of the recall announcement, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed
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AMI: Tenderized Steaks No More Risky
Mechanically tenderized steaks are comparable in safety to unprocessed steaks and do not need special labeling, according to the American Meat Institute (AMI), the group that represents 95 percent of the red met industry.
The safety of mechanically tenderized steaks–also referred to as blade- or needle-tenderized–has come into question in
Tender, but Deadly
E. coli O157:H7 and Mechanically Tenderized Steaks
By now, most people have come to understand that a lot of industrially produced, mass-manufactured ground beef sold in the United States can be deadly. One need only look at the recent reminder provided by the tragic story of Stephanie Smith, and the
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