On 2006-11-29 08:43:07 -0800, Buddy > said:

> I love/loved raw ground beef, the leaner the better, but ever since the
> deregulation (Reagan) of the meat industry (and a couple of
> slaughterhouse documentaries) I don't trust the care & quality going
> into the product. My parents shared the experience with me, as I did
> with my kids, but no more. Unless I'm doing like Dan and grinding my
> own.
>
> Do a 6-sided trim on whatever is your choice and you've practically
> eliminated points of contamination barring punctures, but I digress.

No disprespect is intended. Eat what you like. We all take chances
either large or small depending on two things: how much we care, how
great the risks are perceived to be.

Last year a confident American wholesale beef concern, in an attempt to
assuage fears from European customers regarding "mad-cow" contamination
said he would be glad to verify 100% of his beef as "mad-cow" free.
The USDA filed suit or busted him somehow or other. 100% verification
that beef is free of mad cow is apparently an unacceptable thing to the
feds. They don't want it and won't allow it even, as in this case, the
guy was going to do it at his own cost.

I've read some other stuff that indicates that the meager verifications
we do (2%? 5%?) are debatable. And that nobody on the federal level is
interested in doing anything that would investigate the circumstances
more fully.

I have no idea how endemic it is, but read a piece a couple of years
ago that predicted in a few years we would find out that our beef food
chain has lots of infected animals, with myriad ailments, that are
passed through the chain. I'm not claiming they do, just what I've
heard rumors of.
--
What a day this has been, what a rare mood I'm in.