Bob (this one) wrote:

Cook the meat and virtually everything dies.
> Put a bit of tomato sauce on it to lower the pH and virtually everything
> dies all over again. Chill it and anything still alive (probably log 6
> or 8 kill - 1/100,000 to 1/10,000,000) will stop doing anything.

Here's what I remember from Culinary school 20 years ago. The reason
for throwing away meats that have been in the danger zone (40 degrees-
120 degrees F) rather than cooking them is that the growing bacteria
produce toxins that can make a person sick. Heating kills the bacteria
but does nothing to the toxins that are then present in the meat.

> More and more first-world people get sick from bacteria every day, not
> because they're any more virulent, but because we seem to be in a panic
> about germs and strive to get a germ-free environment. It's stupid. The
> reason people are getting sick isn't because there are germs around.
> They've always been there. It's because we're not being exposed to them
> and our immune systems aren't developing antibodies. A bad idea to wash
> kids' hands with antibacterial soaps.


This is bringing more subjects into the mix. They're related but not
exactly the same. Let me see if I can separate them out.

There are studies showing that children brought up in more antiseptic
environments have higher incidents of asthma and allergies than those
who don't. One theory suggests that perhaps those children's immune
systems don't develop because they're not exposed to bacteria as they
might have been in the past.


Not all bacteria are bad, but anti-bacterial soaps don't discriminate
between the good guys and the bad. Antibacterial soaps dry the skin,
possibly create an environment for bacteria to evolve that aren't killed
by the soaps, and probably don't do that much good anyway since the
bacteria they kill weren't going to do any harm.


These decisions are a matter of weighing benefits and risks. There's
little benefit for a healthy person to wash hands with anti-bacterial
soap before cooking in a restaurant because there isn't much risk of
anyone getting sick in the first place. It does make sense to use the
anti-bacterial soaps in many hospital situations. There's enormous
benefit in washing hands carefully with ordinary soap after using the
bathroom.


The same decision making process can be applied to throwing out the
ground beef. There's some risk of illness from bacteria. There's not a
huge benefit in cooking and eating the burger. You save a little money
but not much. That's why I'd say to throw it away.


--Lia