Ground beef, beef mince or hamburger meat, is a meat product, made of beef finely chopped by a meat grinder. In the New England region, it is commonly called Hamburg. It is called mince or mince meat outside North America. Flesh redirects here. ... A cut of beef. ... The meat grinder is used in the making of ground beef through the process of sending meat down a chute and turning a crank. ... This article is about the region in the United States of America. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ...

Contents

In many countries, food laws define specific categories of ground beef and what they can contain. For example in the US, beef fat may be added to hamburger, but not to ground beef if the meat is ground and packaged at a USDA-inspected plant^[1]. A maximum of 30% fat by weight is allowed in either hamburger or ground beef. Both hamburger and ground beef can have seasonings, but no water, phosphates, extenders, or binders added. Ground beef is often marketed in a range of different fat contents, to match the preferences of different customers. The United States Department of Agriculture (also called the Agriculture Department, or USDA) is a United States Federal Executive Department (or Cabinet Department). ... Above is a ball-and-stick model of the inorganic hydrogenphosphate anion (HPO42−). Colour coding: P (orange); O (red); H (white). ...

Ground beef is usually made from tougher meat and leftover meat created when the sides of beef are carved into steaks and roasts ^[2]. About 17-18% of US ground beef comes from dairy cows ^[3][4].

Culinary use

Raw ground beef

Ground beef is popular as a relatively cheap and quick-cooking form of beef. One of its most well known uses is in American hamburgers. It is an important ingredient in meatloaf, sloppy joe, and Midwestern cuisine. Italians use it to make meat sauces for, for example, lasagna and spaghetti bolognese. In the Middle East it is used to make spicy kofta and meatballs. The Scottish dish mince and tatties uses it along with mashed or boiled potatoes. In Lancashire, particularly Oldham, minced meat is a common filling for Rag Puddings. Image File history File links Groundbeef. ... Image File history File links Groundbeef. ... This article is about the sandwich. ... A meatloaf with a tomato topping. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Midwestern cuisine in the United States features simple dishes such as pot roast, sausage, scrapple, pancakes and other comfort foods. ... Lasagna in the crinkly American style Lasagna, also lasagne, (pronounced ), is both a form of pasta in sheets (often rippled in North America and other countries, though seldom so in Italy) and also a dish, sometimes named Lasagne al forno (meaning Lasagne in the oven) made with alternate layers of... Categories: Food and drink stubs | Sauces ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... Kofta, köfte, kafta, kufta or kafteh are a family of Middle Eastern and South Asian meatballs or dumplings. ... Swedish meatballs This article is about the foodstuff. ... Mince and tatties is an extremely popular Scottish evening dish, consisting of Minced beef and Mashed potato as its main constituents. ... Rag Pudding is an old fashioned savoury dish, popular in Lancashire, England. ...

Raw lean ground beef is used to make steak tartare, and is popular as a sandwich dressing in Belgium, where it is known as filet américain ("American fillet"). This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Many other meats are prepared ground in a similar fasion, including pork, lamb, chicken, and turkey. In South Asia both lamb (mutton) and goat meat are also minced to produce keema, though the process of mincing is manual. Turkey burgers are relatively popular in the US, especially among dieters. Two halves of a pig being delivered Pork is the meat taken from pigs. ... It has been suggested that Lambing be merged into this article or section. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... UN Subregion of South Asia. ... This article is about the animal, sheep; for other meanings of Sheep, see Sheep (disambiguation). ... Keema (Punjabi: , ), is a traditiona home cooked dish in northern India and Pakistan. ...

Food safety

Ground beef and other ground meats have food safety issues not associated with whole cuts of meat. In a whole cut from a healthy animal, the interior of the meat is essentially sterile, even before cooking; any bacterial contamination is on the outer surface of the meat. When meat is ground, bacterial contamination from the surface can be distributed throughout the meat. If ground beef is not well cooked all the way to the center, there is a significant chance that enough pathogenic bacteria will survive to cause illness^[5][6]. Undercooked Jack in the Box hamburgers contaminated in this manner were responsible for four deaths and the illness of hundreds of people in 1993.^[7] Foodborne illness or food poisoning is caused by consuming food contaminated with pathogenic bacteria, toxins, viruses, prions or parasites. ... Sterilization (or sterilisation) is the elimination of all transmissible agents (such as bacteria, prions and viruses) from a surface, a piece of equipment, food or biological culture medium. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Due to these concerns, some ground beef is now irradiated. This practice has received mixed reactions from consumers. The Radura logo, used to show a food has been treated with radiation Food irradiation is the process of exposing food to ionizing radiation in order to disinfest, sanitize, sterilize, or preserve food. ...

References

1. ^ A technicality here is that these rules only apply to meat being sold across state lines. Much ground beef in the US is actually produced at a local grocery store, and is not sold across state lines. In the these cases the laws of the local state apply; state laws can have the same or different requirements
2. ^ Food Safety and Inspection Service. 2002. Focus on Ground Beef. Fact Sheet, July 2002. [1]
3. ^ Espinoza,Mauricio. 2005. Choice of Dairy-Cow Bedding Impacts E. coli Survival, Food Safety. Ohio State University Extension, News Archive, 3/18/2005. [2]
4. ^ Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. 1996. Economic Opportunities for Dairy Cow Culling Management Options. Info Sheet, May 1996 [3].
5. ^ Committee on the Review of the USDA E. coli O157:H7, Farm-to-Table Process Risk Assessment. 2002. Slaughter Module in Escherichia coli O157:H7 in Ground Beef: Review of a Draft Risk Assessment. The National Academies Press, Washington, DC.
6. ^ Honikel, K. O. 2004. Minced Meats in Encyclopedia of Meat Sciences, Jensen, W. K., et al., eds. Elsevier, New York.
7. ^ http://www.ou.edu/deptcomm/dodjcc/groups/02C2/Jack%20in%20the%20Box.htm Case Study: Jack in the Box E. coli crisis