Why can you eat really rare steaks, but ground meat has to be fully cooked?

Answer 1

Bacteria lives on the surface of the meat. When you cook a steak, the bacteria is killed off almost instantly. With ground beef, any bacteria that was present on the surface is now mixed in throughout the meat.

EDIT: I still eat medium rare to medium burgers if the ground beef is purchased from a reputable supplier, and it is perfectly legal to serve undercooked burgers in restaurants as long as you have a warning/disclaimer on your menu.

Answer 2

Because when beef is ground, it can get bacteria in it, each little tiny piece can have bacteria. A steak would have the bacteria just around the edges and flat part that is cut with a knife. Most times, they only clean the grinding machines once a day. But cooking ground meat, fully cooked can still make you sick. I try to be careful. Also with chicken.

Answer 3

See, if you knew where the meat came from in the first place, like you knew the farmer, you could eat the ground beef raw. But ground beef these days comes from many sources and it gets combined together in unwholesome ways. The meat industry doesn't care a lick about who they make sick just as long as they are making profit. Why do you think they feed cows to cows who are supposed to be vegetarians?

So, ground beef doesn't really HAVE to be fully cooked, it is just safer if you are buying your meat at the grocery store.

Answer 4

Legally, i can't tell you anything because chances are we live in different places.

Ground beef has to be cooked fully because it has a nearly infinite surface area that can be exposed to bacteria. Every time the butcher passes another "layer" of ground beef out of the machine that is another layer of potentially fatal bacteria. The fairly bad ones, like E. Coli, will grow on a surface that is exposed to air. When you mix the meat with spices or whatever, you are giving the bacteria a protective shell of meat.

Answer 5

When air hits the meat it becomes easier to collect bacteria. All ground beef has seen the air, therefore it is a lot easier for it to make you sick. It is not legal to serve a Medium rare burger to a customer in the food service industry. Check the Dept of Agriculture.

Answer 6

#1 has it basically right. I still will eat a medium rare burger. My hubby works in the beef industry so I know it's gets a much worse rap than it deserves.
E-coili comes from waste coming into the contact with the meat and that starts with dirty cows in a dirty cow lot.

Answer 7

Becuase ground meat collects more germs from the process of grinding. There may be hundreds of cows in that one ground patty, but a steak is all from the same animal.

Answer 8

"They've" whom ever that is that all meat including those wonderful Beef Steaks should be cooked until done to avoid getting the bugs...

Answer 9

Dude ever hear of a Medium Rare Burger?