For meat lovers, steaks are iconic. And for lovers of meat cooked rare, steaks have, up till now, been a fairly reliable way to avoid E. coli contamination—since most E. coli is on the outside of a cut of meat, cooking a thick steak to a high temperature on the outside but letting the inside remain rare is often considered safe. Unfortunately, that advice is no longer sound.

There’s a new hazard to watch out for when purchasing your carne—at least if you like it a little on the raro side.

Some of the steak sold in stores is now mechanically tenderized. This means machines are used to tenderize the meat using needles, which puncture the surface of the meat. Because of this puncturing of the surface, E. coli bacteria present on the outside of the meat can be driven inside. Then, if the internal temperature of the meat doesn’t reach the required safe temp—160 degrees—the bacteria can survive. This means that if your steak has been mechanically tenderized, it is not safe to eat it rare.

Food safety advice, even from official channels, tends to omit this.  A question posed to Karen, the USDA’s Food Safety Information Service’s automated response system virtual representative, resulted in cooking advice indicating that rare steak is just fine.  A little digging reveals this more appropriate piece of advice:

Cook steaks and roasts that have been tenderized, boned, rolled, etc., to an internal temperature of 160 °F.

There is no labeling that informs consumers of whether their meat has been mechanically tenderized. So before you dream of juicy grilled meat at your relaxing summer barbecue, ask your butcher if the cuts of meat you’re admiring have been tenderized or not.

And then enjoy your barbecue.

-Erica Schuetz & Jen Mueller
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