Burger Bust

Jillian Bandes | October 14, 2009 10:20 AM

After the recent E. Coli outbreak in hamburgers, Larry King took on the issue and heard this from Bill Marler, an expert on foodborne illness litigation.

...when you cook a steak, assuming that steak hasn't been penetrated, you can kill the bacteria that's on the outside of the meat. It's not on the inside of the meat. But when you ground that meat up, that E. coli is in there.

His conclusion? Say no to hamburgers. Even Anthony Bourdain, self-described "bacon lover," had this to say about it:

My major area of concern is the chopped meat....You know, supermarket quality fast food quality, pre-chopped meat...The stuff they're putting in these burgers would not be recognized by any American as meat.

The head of the American Meat Institute, Patrick Boyle, tried to counter with the idea that ground beef was subject to a multitude of testing from the FDA, and that the risks were being overblown. It wasn't enough to stop Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, (D-NY) from introducing more legislation today to regulate the meat industry.