Bacteria where???

[Leroy]

I was recently discussing whether meat (bought in supermarket or at a butcher) has any bacteria inside of it. The whole idea started with the fact that some people prefer medium rare or bloody steaks and the argument that it was edible and not a threat to your health is that all possible bacteria are on the outside of the meat and not the inside.

 

I tried reasoning with these people that through most of the meat we eat, blood runs through the animal when stil alive, thus there always being bacteria inside meat since blood always contains a certain amount of bacteria.

 

Can anyone allaborate whether this is in fact true or was I the only mental patient at lunch that day???

 

Thanx

[jdurg]

I was recently discussing whether meat (bought in supermarket or at a butcher) has any bacteria inside of it. The whole idea started with the fact that some people prefer medium rare or bloody steaks and the argument that it was edible and not a threat to your health is that all possible bacteria are on the outside of the meat and not the inside.

 

I tried reasoning with these people that through most of the meat we eat' date=' blood runs through the animal when stil alive, thus there always being bacteria inside meat since blood always contains a certain amount of bacteria.

 

Can anyone allaborate whether this is in fact true or was I the only mental patient at lunch that day???

 

Thanx[/quote']

 

Yes, it is true that bacteria exists everywhere, but it's also true that not all bacteria are the same. The main reason why steaks or prime ribs are "safe" to eat rare is that the dangerous fecal coliform bacteria are NOT present INSIDE the meat. Those bacteria live in the digestive tract and in other places that the center of a steak or rib roast won't be in contact with.

 

In hamburgers, however, it IS possible for the center of that meat to have been in contact with the "unsafe" bacteria. This is because hamburgers and sausages are made up of ground beef. So in the butcher shop the outside of the chunk of meat may have come into contact with some of the nasty bacteria. That contaminated meat is then ground up and made into a sausage or hamburger and the bacteria is now present on the INSIDE of that product. If you don't cook it all the way through, you run the risk of getting ill.

 

On something like a steak or a rib-roast, as long as the outside (the part of the meat that could have come in contact with the bacteria) is cooked then you do not run the risk of getting ill as the inside either doesn't contain bacteria, or has bacteria which will not make you ill.

[zyncod]

Yes. Animals, including people, are like big donuts, with the hole being the digestive tract. As long as you don't eat any part of the "donut" that has come in contact with the surface, you're safe, since the immune system clears nearly all bacteria from inside the donut.

 

Of course, you could just not eat meat and solve this problem altogether (so I like being preachy. So what?)

[JustStuit]

I like the donut reference. Because of this, I always get medium well hmburgers and rare steaks. Better not to take chances.

 

mmmm....donuts

[Leroy]

thanks a lot for the replies. just to paraphrase someone at that table "Isn't the inside of meat sterile?" and inside i was really cracking up. And these people call themselves scientists.

I know that there is a difference between 'bad' bacteria and 'good' bacteria. And that those good ones are everywhere. I tried to reason with them that the stomach contains bacteria and your blood or your mouth but they all couldn't see that inside of a piece of meat they would also be present.

 

thanks again for clearing that up

[ecoli]

You're not going to avoid injesting bacteria, luckily the body can take care of most of it.

[Dak]

Whilst the inside of meat generally doesn't contain much bad bacteria, it can still contain flukes -- evil little parasitic animals that bury themselves in the flesh of the animal.

[ed84c]

Generally speaking though, dont the really bad flukes only appear in Raw liver, or if you preen yourself, you get the eggs? Not from supermarket meat.

 

Also let me point out before somebody gets salmenella and dies, ffs dont eat "rare" chicken!

[starbug1]

I never eat pink hamburger because of what I've read about the ecoli and other deadly bacterias. I was wondering, (I know some people that eat hamburgers that are read in the middle, medium-medium rare) what is the probability of getting a disease from bad meat? How often is the bacteria inside the hamburger "harmful" bacteria?

[Dak]

Generally speaking though' date=' dont the really bad flukes only appear in Raw liver, or if you preen yourself, you get the eggs? Not from supermarket meat.

 

Also let me point out before somebody gets salmenella and dies, ffs dont eat "rare" chicken![/quote']

 

I thought that there was a 'Beef fluke', that burys itself into the cow's muscle and then, if a carnivore eats the beef, the flukes will live in its intestines, where they will cause explosive diohreahh -- the intention being to spray the eggs around the field where they will hatch and crawl to the tips of the blades of grass so that they will get eaten by the cows again... however, i just tried to check my facts and couldnt find anything about beef-flukes anywhere

[NPK]

I've often heard that (some) Americans like their burgers red in the middle. Silly silly people.

[ed84c]

well how hot do these bacteria need to be to die? There is a law in the UK regarding the middle of burgers if i remember correctly, or a guideline or something. We seem to take for granted that the meat going brown and bacteria being killed is the same thing, although it happens at similar temperatures, im reasonabley sure you can kill most bacteria in a steak/ burger without it all becoming brown meat.

[Max_Normal]

Blood (and therefore muscle tissue like steak) never, ever, ever contains bacteria unless you are sick! Any bacteria that get in though a wound get mopped up locally and pretty quickly by your immune system.

Any bacteria in your meat or burger came from after the animal died.

 

Your digestive system is absolutely jammed with bacteria all of the time, many of which you need to digest your food properly.

 

Most pathogenic bacteria you eat are killed by the HCl in your stomach, but there are some that can resist very low pH (such as H. pylori that causes heartburn).

 

There is a lot of confusion of which is "good" or "bad" bacteria. For example everyone has E.coli in their gut, but you wouldn't want it in a wound as it can cause gangrene. Most bacteria are opportunists, and you can live with them for years until they get in the wrong place or gain a growth advantage over other species of bacteria, and then you get sick.

[Max_Normal]

P.S. for your flukes, check out beef tapeworm, I think that is what you are looking for........

 

Fresh raw beef is pretty safe, although not such a good idea for burgers.

[insane_alien]

blood can contain bacteria when your not sick. infact it always has a few microbes(not necesarily evil ones) by microbes i mean foriegn(spellings gone today methinks) bacteria.

[Steph]

blood can contain bacteria when your not sick. infact it always has a few microbes(not necesarily evil ones) by microbes i mean foriegn(spellings gone today methinks) bacteria.

 

Hi... I'm new here, but I just want to add something.

 

Blood is sterile. There has been reports of bacteria and other microorganisms in blood, but those are controversial at best. If you aren't sick you shouldn't have any bacteria in your bloodstream. this said, I also think that in nature, you can never say never so...

[insane_alien]

well then we must always be sick then cause we always have bacteria in our blood. i asked my friend who is doing 4th year microbiology and he said that blood is a really good breedingground for bacteria although the white cells do fight back in a body. BTW if blood was always sterile then how do we get sick.

[ecoli]

BTW if blood was always sterile then how do we get sick.

 

it's not always sterile... in fact, the instant a baby leaves the womb (perhaps even before then) tons of bacteria enter the human body. Luckily, most are not harmful or we quickly develop antibodies for them. We get sick because we sometimes 'meet' bacteria of other pathogens we don't have antibodies for.

[Billwaa]

I think there are always batcteria everywhere. No matter if you cook it 100% or not. It is becuase even after you cook it, new bacteria could always get on it from dusk, dishes...

[Steph]

well then we must always be sick then cause we always have bacteria in our blood. i asked my friend who is doing 4th year microbiology and he said that blood is a really good breedingground for bacteria although the white cells do fight back in a body. BTW if blood was always sterile then how do we get sick.

 

All that your friend said is true but we are talking about Normal Flora, bacteria that won't usually cause disease. I may have worded it badly but what I meant is that bacteria shouldn't usually be found in the blood. This doesn't mean that no bacteria can grow, just that if they do, you are in trouble.

 

Also, blood is not always sterile: for example, you can get cut and bacteria like C.tetani enter your bloodstream.

btw, I am also a microbiologist.