Avoid Deadly Meat Recalls - Use A Meat Grinder At Home

It might seem unusual to consider obtaining a meat grinder for home use. After all, ground meat is readily available via supermarkets, delis, or through internet food delivery services. However, the last few years have witnessed more and more public notices and grocery store recalls of contaminated ground meat. In fact, per the United States Department of Agriculture’s web site, there have been 34 food recalls through July 2011 involving beef, chicken, pork, turkey and jerky meat and meat products. At this rate, 2011 meat recalls are on pace to increase almost 10% over all of the recalls that occurred in 2010.

Recently, a huge August 2011 recall of over 36 million pounds of ground turkey meat was ordered by the US Department of Agriculture. This was the third-largest meat recall in American history. The USDA linked the contaminated ground turkey, from an Arkansas Cargill, Inc. processing plant, to some 77 cases of salmonella and one death. Incredibly, Federal officials said they found the salmonella at the Cargill plant last year, and then an additional four times this year, at retail stores selling the Cargill turkey, but didn't mandate a recall until the outbreak killed the one person and sickened the 77 others. Apparently, per food safety specialists, meat plants can have 49.9% of tests come back positive for salmonella but still pass United States Department of Agriculture meat processing performance standards. A Cargill spokesman stated that the Arkansas plant had passed all United States Department of Agriculture performance standards. Somehow that fact is not very comforting.

Grinding meat at home with a meat grinder can avoid many of the dangers inherent in high volume meat processing plants. Most of the dangerous bacteria that cause meat recalls are mixed in with meat at slaughterhouses where animals are rendered and prepared for processing and packaging. High volume meat processing involves the slaughter and mixing of numerous different animal parts from many different sources. This raises the risk of E. Coli, salmonella and other harmful bacteria being introduced into the meat. Sadly, many meat plants also fail to maintain a clean environment. Lastly, as evidenced, by the Cargill turkey plant, apparently a meat processing plant can fail to produce clean meat 49.9% of the time and still receive a safe grade.

Using a meat grinder in your kitchen to make homemade ground meat negates these problems and issues. When grinding meat, choose whole, primal cuts of beef to grind. These cuts will be from one animal and one slaughterhouse reducing the risks of slaughterhouse processing and food borne pathogens. You can grind meat at home, under your own supervision, and ensure that no contamination occurs. Furthermore, it gives you an opportunity to look over the cut of meat, smell it and verify that nothing seems amiss.

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