Lidl burgers - Risk of E-coli

[Clair]

If you have recently bought a box of Steak Country frozen burgers from Lidl, do not eat them and return them to the shop for a refund.

The boxes specifically concerned have a date of 10, 11 and 12 May 2012, but Lidl are acceptiong all returns regardless of the date shown.

Details: http://info.france2.fr/france/ecoli-la-viande-viendrait-d-allemagne-69238181.html

(translation)

[nomoss]

Curious that the article seems to suggest that the infection came from outside France, even from several different countries, rather than during the transformation in France from whole carcasses into burgers.

There probably are not many countries where anyone would eat hamburgers cooked at below 65ºC, the temperature at which the bacteria is killed.

[5-element]

Many people would hate to eat steak haché cuit à point, i.e. with no pink whatsoever. It would be (is) like eating the soles of your shoes. And yet, that is what one is supposed to do to make sure no e.coli can survive!

[Chancer]

The inside of a beef joint cooked through to 65 degrees remains red and bloody, I only ever cook mine to just beyond that but it is relatively easy to use a meat thermometer, a steak haché is a bit to thin to get a  reliable reading.

[nomoss]

Maybe they used them to make steak tartare. Never failed to put me out of action for a couple of days, wherever eaten. Tastes good though.

[5-element]

I find it hard to imagine that anyone would use a frozen burger to make steak tartare. Especially since it is children who have fallen ill, most children wouldn't touch steak tartare anyway.

As a young person (teens) I used to love steak tartare and ate it many times in various restaurants, never giving it a second thought. Now, I would probably never order it - although I wonder: is Carpaccio de boeuf just as risky?

I might trust my wonderful butcher though - if I asked him to "hacher" some beef for making tartare, I know I could trust him - and make my own.

 

[Chancer]

[quote user="nomoss"]Maybe they used them to make steak tartare. Never failed to put me out of action for a couple of days, wherever eaten. Tastes good though.[/quote]

Funny that you should say that, I have a cast iron constitution, for example on my last trip to the UK I bought a load of fresh (or perhaps not so) beansprouts because they were marked down to 10p not knowing of the E-wotsit outbreak, I did have a jelly botty for over a week which is extremely rare for me but nothing debilitating, I heard about the healthscare on my return.

I have eaten food cooked in the gutter in many countries yet like you the one thing guaranteed to give me severe Delhi belly is steak tartare, trouble is I love it so!!!

Mind you the old owners of the brasserie next door werent the cleanest of gerants but still not in the league of gutter cooking but in hindsight they probably used steak hache, it has recently changed hands so I might try another tartare fest [:)]

[5-element]

I take back what I said about children eating their steak haché well cooked. Apparently, the sick children ate "la viande crue"... What do they do, take the burgers out of the freezer, and eat it like ice-cream??? Not one thing that I have ever done, but still...

I don't understand how someone with a cast iron digestive system would get ill just through eating raw meat, unless that meat is tainted. Raw beef without bacteria is very easily digested.

Did anyone watch Envoyé Spécial last night? Eeeekkk....about the way some big fast food outlets (MacDo, KFC, etc.) emphasize, in their pub, their rigour in food hygiene practice - then you go into the kitchen, and what a different story it is!!! A very sobering programme.

- Restauration rapide : alerte en cuisines !
En janvier dernier, un adolescent meurt après avoir dîné dans un fast food à Avignon. Les expertises mettent en évidence la présence de staphylocoques dorés dans la salle où sont stockés les aliments. Depuis, de nombreux salariés de la restauration rapide témoignent. Ils racontent que les manquements à l'hygiène sont monnaie courante.
http://www.programme.tv/envoye-special-3594412.php

[Val_2]

My son works in Lidl every holiday (this is his third year) and said yesterday they cleared everything that was in the freezer with that brand name on and anyone who came in with a product was reimbursed whether they had a receipt or not. Luckily for Lidl it is only a small amount of products that fall under that brand name as they tend to use local poultry and pork products where they can. Personally speaking I would never touch a half cooked burger regardless of where it came from, cooking kills bacteria, just warming it through makes it stronger.

[Clair]

Communiqué from Lidl, with details of the product and advice (click on the link and click again to read):

http://www.lidl-info.com/cps/rde/xbcr/newsletter/communique_internet%282%29.jpg

[Val_2]

My son said all this business has had a terrible effect on his store locally. People are so stupid they think everythng is infected they don't come in the numbers that were buying before this problem.It has also laid off drivers from the main distribution depot and the meat stocks are piling up. Also another well known store has had it's cheap range burgers found tobe contaminiated too last week!

[Théière]

It shouldn't effect us Brits as we cook everything properly [;-)]

[Val_2]

Brit customers are a very small minority where we are. Raw meat of any kind is dangerous these days, why do they keep doing it after all the problems???

[5-element]

Still plenty of carpaccio of beef, veal, and fish being sold and served in prestigious and not so prestigious restaurants - and plenty of maki and sushi too. I am not sure what the status of steak tartare is these days, except that the mere notion was always quite repellent to many north-of-channel sensibilities.

I can understand not wanting to eat raw meat now - except, you can scrap steak haché too if it hqs to be cooked to be carbonisé... but sprouted seeds??? Soon will we have to cook lettuce and radishes?!!!

[cooperlola]

We need a sense of proportion here.  There are, what, just under 66 million people in France and how many have died as a result of this bug?  The chances of it being you next are slimmer than your dying in a car accident but are you stopping driving?  No.  I do think these scares are pretty daft and more to do with selling papers etc than pubic health.  Wash your fresh food properly, take care where you buy things (I'm always suspicious of fresh food from the 'pile em high sell it cheap' supermarkets as their hygeine standards are pretty low in my own experience),store food carefully (fresh meat below veg' in the fridge etc) and cook stuff with care, washing your hands as you go.   The rest is up to fate and luck and there's not much we can do about it - we'll all die of something and life isn't much fun if you have to watch every thing you eat all the time.

It would take several hundred deaths, not a few dozen,  to stop me eating rillettes and steak tartare!

[Clair]

[quote user="5-element"]...Soon will we have to cook lettuce and radishes?!!![/quote]

What about the beetroot, courgettes, lettuce, celery, radishes, etc... currently growing in my little veg garden?

Do I assume that the cows manure my neighbour donated earlier this year, which I dug into the beds and around the plants, is safe? [8-)]

I'm about to finish off a home-grow beetroot salad I made yesterday ... It should be safe, as I roasted them, but today I'm adding uncooked celery and grated raw courgette.

In case I don't post again, I trust you'll be able to tell the authorities what caused my demise...! [:P]

[mint]

Clair, would you please post within 24 hours of eating your lunch?  The anxiety of anything happening to you will be too great for some of us to bear?[:D][:P]

[Val_2]

My son said yesterday that Lidl now have a new supplier of meat products and thoroughly checked out. Apparently they are going for compensation from the other lot because of the damage it has done to their reputation through no fault of their own.