Posted: October 9th, 2009 - 10:30pm by Doug Powell

The editorial dudes at the N.Y. Times write in an, uh, editorial, that eating a hamburger should not be a death-defying experience.

Too often it is. As Michael Moss wrote in The Times recently, E. coli sickens thousands of people annually, including a young dance teacher named Stephanie Smith, who was paralyzed after eating a contaminated hamburger. Her case offers a poignant reminder that President Obama and Congress need to quickly fill the safety gaps in food production. …

Already too much of the burden for food safety falls on consumers who are advised to cook hamburgers into shoe leather to kill off any dangerous germs. But even that is not enough because it is too easy for raw ground beef to leave behind toxic traces in the kitchen.

Cross-contamination is a serious issue, as repeatedly pointed out on this blog and in our research. But no one has to cook to shoe leather. Live confidently with a meat thermometer, and stick it in until 160F.