The practice of ordering undercooked hamburgers at a restaurant has always been sort of foreign to me. Literally. Growing up in Ontario (that’s in Canada) I was never offered a choice of how I wanted my hamburger cooked. In the U.S. undercooked ground beef is seen as a personal preference. The FDA Food Code says that a cooked hamburger reaches 160F (or 155F for 15 seconds) but the rules allow for restaurants to cook meats, including ground beef, how a patron wants it – with the caveat that they must inform the orderer of the risks.  

Much of this risk communication is carried out on menus with a combination of asterisks, fine print and legalese.

Some restaurants ask people whether they want their burgers “pink or no pink” although it’s widely known in food safety circles that color is a lousy indicator.

A few servers engage patrons in a discussion about what the risk is – sometimes correctly, sometimes not. Our group is investigating some of these questions with the aim of having better communication and understanding as part of a large USDA grant focusing on reducing the risk of Shigatoxin-producing E. coli related to beef.

And many restaurants don’t serve undercooked burgers at all – likely because they are trying to avoid the situation that has unfolded over the past week: Eleven are ill in 4 states from E. coli O157. Reports point to undercooked ground beef at restaurants as a risk factor.

According to USDA FSIS,

Wolverine Packing Company, a Detroit, Mich. establishment, is recalling approximately 1.8 million pounds of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

The ground beef products were produced between March 31, 2014 and April 18, 2014. For a full list of products that were recalled please see the attached document.

The products subject to recall bear the establishment number “EST. 2574B” and will have a production date code in the format “Packing Nos: MM DD 14” between “03 31 14” and “04 18 14”. These products were shipped to distributors for restaurant use in Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio.

FSIS was notified of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses on May 12, 2014. Working in conjunction with public health partners from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), FSIS determined that there is a link between the ground beef products from Wolverine Packing Company and this illness cluster. Based on epidemiological and traceback investigations, 11 case-patients have been identified in 4 states with illness onset dates ranging from April 22, 2014 to May 2, 2014. FSIS continues to work with our state and federal public health partners on this investigation and provide updated information as it becomes available.