Cooking Hamburger? Go by the Numbers

For most hamburger lovers, the test of whether their ground beef is fully cooked comes when they poke into the meat and see that the pinkish color has turned a light brown.

But the U.S. Department of Agriculture is concerned that this tried-and-true approach isn’t enough to avoid ingesting organisms that cause food-borne illnesses. So the department, along with public health agencies, is trying to persuade the public to use thermometers when cooking ground beef.

Food experts are urging consumers to cook ground beef until it reaches 160 degrees, a temperature high enough to destroy organisms that cause diarrhea, stomach cramps, vomiting and other problems.

“It isn’t something the average person does, but it’s important,” said Diane Van, a USDA spokeswoman. “It’s the only way you can be absolutely sure that the hamburger has reached a safe enough temperature to kill bacteria.”

The USDA has been encouraging supermarkets to paste labels on ground beef warning consumers to cook their meat to 160 degrees. But the voluntary labeling hasn’t caught on at most stores.

Most supermarket chains, such as Lucky, place safe-cooking labels on ground beef but not temperature-warning labels. Lucky, however, does sell digital thermometers designed to measure the temperature of chopped beef, a supermarket representative said.

Billy’s Meat Seafood & Deli in San Clemente doesn’t use the temperature labels either. But the store grinds its meat two or three times a day, leaving less chance for organisms to grow, said owner Billy Bradley.

The USDA began recommending the use of thermometers last year after completing a study showing the color of ground beef is not a reliable indicator of whether meat is done.

The researchers found cases in which ground beef was brown at temperatures as low as 135 degrees and pink at temperatures above 160 degrees. Meat can turn dark if it’s frozen, spiced or old.

The best thermometers for chopped meat are digital ones that have sensors in the lower half-inch of the stem, Van said. The thermometers used to measure turkeys typically take readings along the lowest two inches, so it’s hard to get a reading on thin foods like hamburger patties.

In Orange County, the most common illness-inducing bacteria in food are salmonella and campylobacter, said Hilly Meyers, the acting health officer for the county’s Health Care Agency.

Those can cause diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever and sometimes bloody stool. The symptoms can last anywhere from half a day to three days. Other bacteria sometimes found in raw meat are the listerias, which can cause spontaneous abortion or stillbirth.

E. coli contamination, which can result in bloody stool, is also a hazard of eating undercooked meat. But officials said it’s less a problem in Orange County than elsewhere in the nation.

“Any food of animal origin can contain organisms that make us sick, and it partly depends on how it’s processed and how it’s stored and handled by the consumers,” Meyers said. “At every step along the way, you can contribute or discourage the growth of organisms.”

For more information on how to cook meat and poultry safely, call the USDA hotline at (800) 535-4555 or check the USDA Web site: https://www.fsis.usda.gov.