Some Ammonia With Your Beef?

For reason number 173 to eat Meat Of Known Origin, take a look at this article from yesterday's New York Times.

Summary:

Contamination, particularly with E. coli O157:H7 and salmonella, has been a persistent problem with mainstream ground beef. Eight years ago, someone started a company called Beef Products, Inc., based on the idea of treating questionable bits of meat with ammonia to kill the pathogens. Changing and inconsistently-observed treatment standards within the company, combined with ineffective oversight by federal agencies, has resulted in meat reaching the public whose safety and palatability is questionable, either because it is tainted with pathogens or because it smells like ammonia. State prison officials in Georgia rejected some of the meat, deeming it unfit for consumption by their inmates, even while the same meat was being served in national fast food chains, whose standards are apparently lower. Click here for the whole article.