THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 1, 1994 TAG: 9409010015
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A20 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
``Medium-rare, please.''
These words used to be on the lips of many a Virginian of good taste when ordering a hamburger.
But now, due to chilling warnings from the Food and Drug Administration, many Virginia restaurants have become fearful of meeting their customers' desires and serve only burgers that are cooked to medium or even more thoroughly.
And in some states (North Carolina and Washington) and many localities, health departments have gone so far as to ban restaurants from serving burgers cooked less than medium.
The FDA started the trend of hamburger regulation because of an incident in the Pacific Northwest in early 1993, when hundreds became ill and four died after eating burgers at the Jack in the Box restaurant chain that had become tainted with a strain of E. coli bacteria.
After that incident, the FDA altered its safety standard for cooking burgers in its Food Code, a book of recommendations state health regulators use as a guide when drawing up local health ordinances. The FDA also started a nationwide campaign in which it called burgers cooked less than medium-well ``undercooked.''
All of this, however, is based on a fallacy. Government investigators in the Jack in the Box incident never discovered the source of the tainted meat, saying it might have come from a warehouse. They did say that the bacteria that caused the illness could have been killed by cooking the hamburger medium-well or better. Thus, the FDA took this incident and made it the recommended standard for all hamburgers, everywhere.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, however, says that if food is properly handled at all levels of production, there is almost no chance of contamination. The FDA could have emphasized this aspect of food preparation, which has nothing to do with cooking, rather than issue a blanket statement that declares ``undercooked'' hamburgers hazardous to one's health.
How dangerous are ``undercooked'' hamburgers, anyway? Although no exact figures are available, the CDC estimates that about 20 deaths a year can be attributed to E. coli bacteria - whether the contamination occurs in restaurants or the home they can't say. In other words, you have a better chance of being killed by lightning than dying from a lightly cooked hamburger.
The American meat industry has a strong safety record and has it in its own self-interest to keep it that way. A food contamination case like Jack in the Box can cost the industry millions in lawsuits and bad publicity.
So, before telling Americans to ``Have it our way - or else,'' the FDA should consult the evidence, which right now looks half-baked. by CNB