Is Grass-Fed Organic Cattle Really Less Likely to Contain Bacteria?
Is organic ground beef safer than conventional beef? It is, according to Consumer Reports’ “How Safe is Your Ground Beef?"
According to the special report published this week, beef from conventionally raised cattle is more likely to be contaminated with bacteria, particularly Staphylococcus aureus. For their purposes, Consumer Reports defined “sustainably-produced” beef as meat that falls into at least one of the following categories:
Consumer Reports tested 300 packages of ground beef for Clostridium pergringens, seven strains of Escherichia coli, Enterococcus, Salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus. All meat was obtained from various big box grocers and natural food stores in 26 U.S. cities. Bacteria was reportedly detected in all of the beef samples tested. A rather large portion of the conventional beef tested--80 percent of it--contained two types of bacteria.