An online survey conducted by safefood found that 51% of Irish adults have reported that they eat undercooked burgers when in restaurants.
While respondents listed a range of factors as to why they eat undercooked burgers, ranging from taste and confidence in the food preparation, 65% of people said they would reconsider this choice if they knew there was a risk of food poisoning.
This research underpins the launch of safefood’s new campaign ‘Burger Fever’ which has been developed to educate the public on the importance of only eating burgers that are cooked through to prevent contracting serious and sometimes life-threatening food poisoning. safefood is calling on people to always ask for burgers to be well cooked.
E-COLI RISK ON UNDERCOOKED MEAT
Commenting on the campaign Dr. Gary Kearney Director of Food Science at safefood said “Mince used in hamburgers is a higher risk as the food poisoning bacteria that live on the surface of the beef (steak) is then mixed through the middle of the burger when the beef is minced – so in effect, the outside is now on the inside. The only way to ensure that any bacteria in the middle of the burger is killed off is to ensure that the burger is cooked well done.”
The growing trend of serving burgers cooked to preference or less than well done in restaurants across Ireland has raised concerns for regulatory authorities including the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) and the HSE’s Environmental Health Service.
As a result earlier this year, the FSAI issued new advice to caterers to only serve burgers that are safe to eat by cooking the meat all the way through.
While most people who get sick from food poisoning will recover without any lasting effects, some E.coli in particular carry the risk of more serious long-term effects.
You can follow and join in the conversation on #burgerfever. To find out more about safefood visit www.safefood.eu.