10 Scary Things that Might be in Your Meat
College marks a new and exciting time in a person’s life. As a new student entering the world of higher education, you will learn to expand your mind in classes and subjects you have never before studied. While college marks a new chapter for one’s educational and professional life, it can also prompt changes in one’s personal life. You will likely be living on your own for the first time and preparing your own food each day. While cooking may be the least of your worries as you toil through the challenges of your freshman year, it is important to educate yourself on some of the dangers cooking your own food can pose if done incorrectly. As you explore the exciting world of culinary arts, be sure to handle and cook meat properly, so as to better avoid any food borne illnesses. The following list highlights 10 scary and potentially harmful things that can be found in the meat we eat every day.
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Escherichia Coli Bacteria
E. Coli is something we’ve all probably heard of. Many don’t realize that the E. coli bacteria are found in the lower intestinal track of most warm-blooded organisms. Most strains of E. coli are completely harmless. The harmless strands are part of the normal flora of the gut that can beneficial in producing vitamin K and preventing certain dangerous bacteria from establishing in the intestine. However, some strains of E. coli can cause very serious food poisoning in humans. According to the Center for Disease Control, approximately 85 percent of E. coli infections are food borne. E. coli typically gets into meats when meat processing is performed poorly and the animal’s fecal matter containing the E. coli bacterium gets mixed into the meat. The most common food to be contaminated with E. coli is ground beef, venison, sausages, and salami. As if it wasn’t bad enough that we may possibly be eating hamburgers with feces in them, it may also kill us. Yikes.
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Salmonella Bacteria
Similar to the E. coli bacterium, salmonella is found in the intestinal tracks of cold- and warm-blooded animals as well as in the environment. The illness that the bacterium causes is called salmonellosis, which typically includes fever, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. In some cases where the person is of poor underlying health or has a weakened immune system, the bacteria can invade the bloodstream and cause a life threatening infection. Salmonellosis is usually transmitted to humans by eating foods contaminated with animal feces. Salmonella is most closely associated with poultry because (unlike E. coli) the bacterium is also found in birds. Salmonella present in raw meat can survive if the meat is not cooked properly.
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Trichina Worm
Trichinosis is a parasitic disease caused by eating raw or undercooked pork infected with the larvae of a species of roundworm called the trichina worm. Yes, this means that there may be living worms in your meat. Gross (to say the least). The prevalence of trichinosis has gone down in the past decade because of heightened regulation on food sanitation. In the past, people would feed raw meat to their hogs. The pigs would pick up the parasite this way and then their infected meat would be sold to the public. When a piece of meat with trichina larvae is ingested, a person’s natural stomach acid eats away at the hard shell, releasing the worm into their system.
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Campylobacter Bacteria
Known as C. coli, Campylobacter is one of the most common causes of diarrheal illness in the United States, according to the Center for Disease Control. These bacteria live in the intestines of healthy birds, meaning that most raw poultry meat has campylobacter on it. Eating undercooked chicken or other food that has been contaminated with the juices dripping from raw chicken is the most frequent source of this infection. One of the most common ways to become infected with campylobacter is by cutting poultry meat on a cutting board, and then using the unwashed cutting board or utensil to prepare vegetables or other lightly cooked foods.
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Toxoplasma Gondii Parasite
Causing the disease Toxoplasmosis, Toxoplasm gondii is a parasite that is believed to be infecting more than 60 million people in the United States alone. While cats get most flak for spreading Toxoplasmosis, contact with raw meat is a more significant source of human infection and fecal contamination of hands is a greater risk factor. Toxoplasmosis causes a mild flu-like illness in the first few weeks and after that rarely causes any symptoms. However, for individuals with weakened immune systems the illness can become significantly more serious. People get toxoplasmosis by eating infected meat. So, regardless of whether the illness makes you feel sick or not, the idea of having live parasites inside you is nauseating enough.
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Taenia Solium Parasite
Now this one is really creepy. Taenia Solium is a pork tapeworm. The infection caused by these tapeworms is called cysticercosis, which causes cysts to form in brain and muscle tissue. This disease is spread by ingesting pork that is already infested with the parasite. Although it is uncommon, tapeworm eggs contained in contaminated food are occasionally eaten in the United States. One scenario where this might happen is if a tapeworm carrier with poor hygiene were to accidentally contaminate food while preparing it for others.
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Mad-Cow Disease
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, more commonly known as mad-cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle. The disease is most easily transmitted to humans by eating food contaminated with the brain, spinal cord, or digestive tract of infected carcasses. Although it is not completely confirmed, there is strong evidence that the human disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is caused by the ingestion of beef infected with mad-cow disease. Mad-Cow disease is completely lethal.
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Shigella Bacteria
Another bacterium typically found in meat contaminated with fecal matter. Yes, again we’re talking about ingesting feces. If we sound like we’re repeating ourselves, we are. But repeating ourselves means we can stress that nearly all of these bacteria and parasites can be avoided by thoroughly washing our hands, carefully processing our meat, and completely cooking our meat. Shigella is a bacterium that is only naturally found in primates intestinal tracts. This means that the only way shigella can get our meat is if human fecal matter contaminates our meat through human handling.
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Bone
Ground beef can easily contain bits of bone fragments in it. As gross as it sounds, finding bone in ground meat is actually a pretty regular occurrence. Much of the meat processed for ground beef is “deboned” in a machine before it is ground up. This machine uses sharp tools to cut away as much meat from the bone as it possibly can. Some meat processors are willing to sacrifice the quality of their ground meat for quantity, accidentally cutting small pieces of bone away with the meat. These fragments of bone are small enough that they can make it through the meat grinding process and into your hamburger meat. So, be careful not to chip a tooth.
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Intestine
This isn’t exactly something that is inside meat, but it is something that we ingest with meat. A sausage casing is the material used to contain the sausage filling. While there are two types of casings, one is a natural casing made from a layer of intestine. These casings are made from the intestinal tract of several different types of farm animals (most typically pigs) and, after processing, bear a close resemblance to the original intestine of the animal. The anatomy of it all is gross enough. We take the meat of an animal and stuff it into that same animal’s intestines and then we cook it and eat it. Yum! The second type of sausage is only a little bit better. An artificial sausage casing is made of cellulose or collagen, usually made from the hides, bones or tendons of cattle and pigs. Gross.
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