Health

Risks Low From Recalled Beef, Be Safe With Meat

(CBS4) There is good news and bad news about the safety of meat and the food supply in general in the wake of the largest ever beef recall in U.S. history, Dr. Dave Hnida reports.

Hnida, CBS4's Medical Editor, points out that most of the recalled beef has already been eaten, so if people, including children haven't gotten sick yet from e. Coli or salmonella, odds are they won't. The bad news is that mad cow disease doesn't show symptoms in people for up to 5 to 20 years.

The safeguards in the food supply system make the odds of getting mad cow one in several billion. The bad news is that the current case of recalled meat the hidden video investigation by the U.S. Humane Society show how well those safeguards worked. Hnida said mad cow is probably still pretty low on the radar with this recall.

Most fast food chains don't use beef from the company recalling meat. The bad news is that the recall shows that people never know what they're getting in a school cafeteria or any other restaurant. Hnida says eating at home is always safer.

He also points out that ground beef is always riskier than other cuts of beef because any germs on the two main surfaces of the meat have been ground into thousands of chopped surfaces.

Hnida says to always cook your burgers to 160 degrees, well done, to kill e. Coli and other germs.

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