How Careful Should You Be When Handling Raw Meat For Your Burgers?

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One of the mistakes (almost) everyone makes when cooking ground beef is occasionally overlooking food safety standards. This is of particular note when you're handling meat for burgers, because ground beef is fraught with higher safety concerns due to the grinding process — it exposes far more surface area to potential contaminants. There are a lot of essential tips to grilling perfect burgers, but, before you can sink your teeth into a juicy, well-seasoned patty, you need to observe a pretty thorough list of proper food handling guidelines. There's no reason to think you can't safely prepare burgers at home — you just need to be very careful.

According to the USDA, there are a number of dangerous pathogens that can be present in ground beef, the best-known of which is E.coli. In the United States, stringent public food safety guidelines go a long way towards preventing widespread E.coli infection, but dozens of people still die from it every year — and many, many more are sickened by it. 

Observing best practices for handling raw meat is a process that starts in the grocery store. Packages should be individually bagged, brought home quickly, and stored in either the fridge or freezer right away. Ground beef lasts a vastly shorter time in the fridge than it does frozen; either way, you should label your packages with the date they were purchased.

When it comes time to make the burgers, always wash your hands thoroughly before and after handling raw meat, and make sure you don't touch anything else in your kitchen. Any surface that the meat touches should be thoroughly sanitized to avoid cross-contamination. Make sure you don't use the same plates or utensils on cooked beef that you did on raw meat. And, of course, this is all to say nothing of the fact that you should use a meat thermometer to ensure your burgers reach a safe internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit before eating – Amazon's top choice for accuracy, the Alpha Grillers thermometer, has thousands of positive reviews.

As is the case with many tricky skills in the kitchen, handling ground beef without fear comes about from knowledge and lots of practice. As previously stated, the North American supply chain for ground beef is a well-oiled machine that goes a long way towards preventing contamination. Careful home handling does the rest. If you handle raw beef with care and follow instructions, you should feel comfortable cooking and enjoying delicious burgers. Practice not only makes perfect, but builds much-needed confidence.