Cooking Raw Ground Beef Safe Temperature

Ground Beef: the Most Popular Meat Ground beef patties are the most popular beef item for United States consumers; nearly 12 billion hamburgers were consumed by Americans in 2007 (3).  Ground beef patties are the most frequently grilled meat (1).  Ground beef is also popular in other forms such as meat loaf, meat balls, sloppy joes, and tacos. How To Handle and Cook Ground Beef As explained below (see Why is Raw Ground Beef Singled Out by Food Safety Experts?), the unique character of ground beef warrants careful handling. Avoid Contaminating Other Foods with Raw Meat or Raw Meat Juice

Use a Thermometer to Insure Ground Beef Reaches the Safely Cooked Internal Temperature of 160°F Destruction of the pathogens that may be present in raw ground beef, particularly E. coli, requires a cooking procedure that heats the beef to an internal temperature of 160°F (20). Use of a food thermometer is the only way to determine that the internal temperature of ground beef patties has reached 160°F (13, 19).  (Unfortunately, only 13% of consumers always or often use a thermometer when cooking or grilling hamburgers (9).) Learn how to use a food thermometers when cooking ground beef: The University of Idaho Extension website, "All About Food Thermometers" provides information about cooking with food thermometers, including information about how to choose a food thermometer and how to use one. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service Thermometers and Food Safety page also provides information about thermometers and how to use them. Ground beef patties should be tested for the safely cooked temperature of 160°F in several locations because the entire patty does not reach one temperature at the same time.  Additionally, the lowest temperature is not always in the center of the patty (16). Why is Raw Ground Beef Singled Out by Food Safety Experts? Although other meats have caused foodborne illness, there are several attributes of ground beef which suggest that more careful handling–particularly use of a thermometer to cook to 160°F– is required. Ground Beef May Contain Pathogens Throughout Retail ground beef may contain pathogens (disease-causing microorganisms), most notably Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enterica.  These pathogens are frequently associated with food animals, and E. coli O157:H7 is particularly associated with ruminant animals.

Illnesses Have Been Associated with Ground Beef Consumers have developed E. coli O157:H7 infections from consumption of undercooked ground beef.

Previous Advice to Consumers to Use Cooked Meat Color as an Indicator of Safe Ground Beef was Wrong Prior to 1997, consumers were encouraged to cook ground beef until "brown" in the middle to assure a safe temperature had been reached (11).  However, research conducted in the 1990s determined that cooked ground beef color does not correlate to safe endpoint temperature (2, 6, 7, 11). Ground beef can turn brown before it reaches 160°F or it may retain a pink color at temperatures above 160°F–cooked color change in ground beef depends on a number of factors, including pH, meat source, packaging, freezing history and added ingredients (8).

These photos illustrate the color-temperature disconnect for ground beef patties:

The only way to determine that ground beef patties, or other products formed from ground beef, such as meat loaf or large meat balls, are safely cooked is to use a thermometer to determine the safe temperature of 160°F has been reached.  (Normal cooking practice for small ground beef products such as crumbles means they are generally cooked to well above 160°F.)

Labels on Packages of Frozen Ground Beef Patties Do Not Always Provide Cooking Instructions That Result in Safely Cooked Patties

A recent survey of labels on packages of frozen ground beef patties (4 oz. size) revealed some packages suggest cooking times of 1.5 to 2 min/side.  Research on consumer cooking procedures indicates that cooking times of less than 3 min/side could not produce a safely cooked product, thus some packages provided unsafe instructions.  Frozen ground beef patties generally required 7 to 9 min total cooking time and starting with a room temperature pan (not preheated) extends the cooking time by about 4 min.  Furthermore, cook times on a propane grill are more variable in than a fry pan on the electric stove.  Bottom line: The variability of cooking times for patties makes it Packaging also gave conflicting information about the use of cooked color to predict doneness and about avoiding both overcooking and undercooking, provided an array of confusing instructions for consumers (12).

Since 1994, federal regulations require a Safe Handling Label, which includes information about storing, cooking, and avoiding cross contamination, on all consumer packages of ground beef (and other raw meat) (14).

Conclusion

Until ground beef is assured to be a pathogen-free product, consumers can best protect themselves and their loved ones by using a food thermometer to make sure cooked ground beef reaches a safe temperature of 160°F.

References

1.  American Meat Institute.  2007. Grills to Sizzle Over Holiday Weekend, May 26. http://www.meatami.com/ht/d/ReleaseDetails/i/3023.

2.  Berry, B. W. and M.E. Bigner-George.  2000. Factors affecting color properties of beef patties cooked on an outdoor gas grill.  J. Muscle Foods 11:213-226.

3.  Cattleman's Beef Board.  2008. "I'll take a burger with a side of burger," CBB Checkoff News, http://www.beefboard.org.  Accessed July 11, 2008.

4.  Davis, M. plus 34 others.  1993. Update: Multistate outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infections from hamburgers — Western United States, 1992-1993, Morb. Mort. Weekly Rep. 42(14):258-263.

5.  DeWaal, C. S. and F. Bhuiya.  2007.  Outbreak Alert!  Center for Science in the Public Interest, page 12, http://www.cspinet.org/foodsafety/outbreak_alert.pdf.

6.  Hague, M.A.; K.E. Warren; M.C. Hunt; D.H. Kropf; C.L. Kastner; S.L. Stroda; and D.E. Johnson.  1994. Endpoint temperature, internal cooked color, and expressible juice color relationships in ground beef patties. J. Food Sci. 59(3): 465-470.

7.  Killinger, K.M., M.C. Hunt, R.E. Campbell and D.H. Kropf.  2000. Factors affecting premature browning during cooking of store-purchased ground beef.  J. Food Sci. 65(4):585-587.

8.  King, N.J. and Whyte, R. 2006. "Does It Look Cooked? A Review of Factors that Influence Cooked Meat Color," J. Food Sci. 71(4):R31-R40.

9.  Lando, A. and L. Verrill.  2008. 2006 FDA/FSIS Food Safety Survey, http://www.fda.gov/Food/ScienceResearch/ResearchAreas/ConsumerResearch/ucm080374.htm.

10.  Lange, L.  2008. Beef trim baseline results and how FSIS will use, Presentation at E. coli Public Meeting, April 9, Washington, D.C., http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PPT/Beef_Trim_Baseline_040908.ppt.  Accessed October 8, 2008.

11.  Lyon, B. G., B. W. Berry, D. Soderberg, and N. Clinch.  2000.  Visual color and doneness indicators and the incidence of premature brown color in beef patties cooked to four end point temperatures.  J. Food Prot. 63(10):1389-1398.

12.  McCurdy, S.M., M.T. Takeuchi, Z. Edwards, M. Edlefsen, D-H. Kang, V.E. Mayes, and V. N. Hillers.  2006. Food safety education initiative to increase consumer use of food thermometers in the United States.  Br. Food J. 108:775-794.

13.  McCurdy, S.M., Finley, K., and Zemmer, T.  2009. Label instructions and cooking times for retail frozen ground beef patties.  Food Prot. Trends 29(6):335-341.

14.  Ralston, K. L. and Lin, C. T. J.  2001.  U.S. Safe Handling Labels for Meat and Poultry: A Case Study in Information Policy. Consumer Interests Annual, Volume 47.

15.  Rangel, J.M., P.H. Sparling, C. Crowe, P.M. Griffin, and D.L. Swerdlow.  2005. Epidemiology of Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreaks, United States, 1982-2002. Emerging Infect. Dis. 11(4):603-609.

16.  Rhee, M.S., S.Y. Lee, V.N. Hillers, S.M. McCurdy, and D-H. Kang.  2003. Evaluation of consumer -style cooking methods for reduction of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in ground beef.  J Food Prot. 66:1030-1034.

17.  Shillamplus, P. plus 12 others.  2002. Multistate outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infections associated with eating ground beef — United States, June–July 2002, Morb. Mortal. Weekly Rep. 51(29):637-639.

18.  Slutsker, L., A.A. Ries, K. Maloney, J.G. Wells, K.D. Greene, and P.M. Griffin.  1998. A nationwide case-control study of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infection in the United States, J. Infect. Dis. 177:962-966.

19.  U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service.  2008a. Food Safety Education: Thermy™, http://www.fsis.usda.gov/food_safety_education/thermy/index.asp, accessed June 30, 2008. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/R01-2008_release/index.asp, accessed June 30, 2008.

20.  U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service.  2003a. Color of cooked ground beef as it relates to doneness, http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FactSheets/Color_of_Cooked_Ground_Beef/index.asp.

21.  U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service.  2002. Backgrounder: New measures to address E. coli O157:H7 contamination.  http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/background/ec0902.pdf, accessed June 30, 2008.

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Source: https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2009/08/ground-beef-the-importance-of-safe-handling-practices-and-accurate-final-product-temperature/

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