Ground beef, minced beef or beef mince is
beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus'').
In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantity ...
that has been finely chopped with a knife,
meat grinder
A meat grinder (also called a "meat mincer" in the UK) is a kitchen appliance for fine chopping ('mincing') and/or mixing of raw or cooked meat, fish, vegetables or similar food. It replaces tools like the mincing knife (which are also use ...
(American English), mincer or mincing machine (British English). It is used in many recipes including
hamburger
A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically Ground beef, beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles ...
s,
bolognese sauce,
meatloaf
Meatloaf is a dish of ground meat that has been combined with other ingredients and formed into the shape of a loaf, then baked or smoked. The final shape is either hand-formed on a baking tray, or pan-formed by cooking it in a loaf pan. ...
,
meatballs and
kofta
Kofta is a family of meatball or meatloaf dishes found in Balkan, Middle Eastern, South Caucasian, South Asian and Central Asian cuisines. In the simplest form, koftas consist of balls of minced meatusually beef, chicken, pork, lamb or mutto ...
.
It is not the same as
mincemeat
Mincemeat is a mixture of chopped dried fruit, distilled spirits and spices, and often beef suet, usually used as a pie or pastry filling. Mincemeat formerly contained meat, notably beef or venison. Many modern recipes replace the suet with v ...
, which is a mixture of chopped dried fruit, distilled spirits, spices and historically (but nowadays rare) minced/ground meat.
Contents
![Hackfleisch-1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Hackfleisch-1.jpg)
In many countries, food laws define specific categories of ground beef and what they can contain. For example, in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, beef fat may be added to hamburger but not to ground beef if the meat is ground and packaged at a
USDA
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...
-inspected plant.
[These rules only apply to meat being sold across state lines. In the U.S., much ground beef is produced at local grocery stores and is not sold across state lines. In these cases, the laws of the local state apply; state laws may have different requirements.] In the U.S., a maximum of 30% fat by weight is allowed in either hamburger or ground beef. The allowable amount in France is 5 to 20% (15% being used by most food chains). In Germany, regular ground beef may contain up to 15% fat while the special "Tatar" for ''
steak tartare
Steak tartare or tartar steak is a dish of raw ground (minced) beef. It is usually served with onions, capers, mushrooms, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and other seasonings, often presented separately, to be added to taste. It is often ser ...
'' may contain less than 5% fat. Both hamburger and ground beef can have added seasoning,
phosphate
In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid .
The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phospho ...
, extenders, or binders added, but no additional water is permitted. Ground beef is often marketed in a range of different fat contents to match the preferences of customers.
Ground beef is generally made from the less tender and less popular cuts of beef. Trimmings from tender cuts may also be used.
In a study in the U.S. in 2008, eight brands of fast food hamburgers were evaluated for recognizable tissue types using
morphological techniques that are commonly used in the evaluation of tissue's
histological
Histology,
also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology which studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at larger structures vis ...
condition. The study of the eight laboratory specimens found the content of the hamburgers included:
* Water: 37.7% to 62.4% (mean, 49%)
* Muscle: 2.1% to 14.8% (median, 12.1%)
* Skeletal tissue: "Bone and cartilage, observed in some brands, were not expected; their presence may be related to the use of mechanical separation in the processing of the meat from the animal. Small amounts of bone and cartilage may have been detached during the separation process."
* Connective tissue
* Blood vessels
* Peripheral nerve tissue. Brain tissue was not detected in any of the samples.
*
Adipose tissue
Adipose tissue, body fat, or simply fat is a loose connective tissue composed mostly of adipocytes. In addition to adipocytes, adipose tissue contains the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) of cells including preadipocytes, fibroblasts, vascular e ...
—"The amount of
lipid
Lipids are a broad group of naturally-occurring molecules which includes fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E and K), monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The functions of lipids include ...
observed was considerable and was seen in both adipose tissue and as lipid droplets. Lipid content on oil-red-O staining was graded as 1+ (moderate) in 6 burgers and 2+ (marked) in 2 burgers."
* Plant material: "was likely added as a filler to give bulk to the burger"
"Pink slime"
Ground beef in the United States may contain a meat-based product used as a food additive produced using technology known as
advanced meat recovery systems or alternatively by using the slime system. Meat processing methods used by companies such as
Beef Products, Inc. (BPI) and
Cargill Meat Solutions produce lean, finely textured beef product, otherwise known as "pink slime," from fatty beef trimmings. This meat-based product is then treated with antimicrobial agents to remove
salmonella
''Salmonella'' is a genus of rod-shaped (bacillus) Gram-negative bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae. The two species of ''Salmonella'' are ''Salmonella enterica'' and ''Salmonella bongori''. ''S. enterica'' is the type species and is fur ...
and other
pathogens
In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ ...
, and is included in a variety of ground beef products in the U.S. From 2001, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved the product for limited human consumption. In a 2009 article by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', the safety of the beef processing method used by BPI was questioned.
After the USDA's approval, this product became a component in ground beef used by
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...
,
Burger King
Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based res ...
and many other
fast-food
Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredient ...
chains as well as
grocery chain
As of September 2020, this is a list of supermarket chains, past and present, which operate or have branches in more than one country, whether under the parent corporation's name or another name. For supermarkets that are only in one country, see ...
s in the U.S.
[
In government and industry records in testing for the United States' ]school lunch program
The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (79 P.L. 396, 60 Stat. 230) is a 1946 United States federal law that created the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) to provide low-cost or free school lunch meals to qualified students through ...
, pathogen
In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ ...
s such as '' E. coli'' and salmonella were found dozens of times in meat from BPI, which raises questions about safety of the meat product and the effectiveness of the antimicrobial method used in meat recovery system of the company. Between 2005 and 2009, ''E. coli'' was found three times and salmonella 48 times.[ BPI had a rate of 36 positives for salmonella per 1,000 tests, compared to a rate of nine positives per 1,000 tests for other suppliers for the program.][ However, the program continued to source from BPI because its price was substantially lower than ordinary meat trimmings, saving about $1m a year for the program.][
]Cargill
Cargill, Incorporated, is a privately held American global food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865, it is the largest privately held corporation in the United States in ter ...
, among the largest hamburger makers in the U.S., is a big buyer of the meat-based product from BPI for its patties, according to the Times.[ It suspended buying meat from two plants owned by BPI for several months in 2006 after excessive levels of salmonella were found.][
]
Cuts of beef
Although any cut of beef can be used to produce ground beef, chuck steak
Chuck steak is a cut of beef and is part of the sub-prime cut known as the chuck.
The typical chuck steak is a rectangular cut, about 2.5 cm (1 inch) thick and containing parts of the shoulder bones, and is often known as a " 7-bone steak," ...
is a popular choice because of its rich flavor and meat-to-fat ratio. Round steak
A round steak is a beef steak from the "round", the rear leg of the cow. The round is divided into cuts including the eye (of) round, bottom round, and top round, with or without the "round" bone (femur), and may include the knuckle (sirloin tip) ...
is also often used. In the United States, ground beef is usually categorized based on the cut and fat percentage:
* Chuck: 78–84% lean
* Round: 85–89% lean
* Sirloin: 90–95% lean
Culinary use
Ground beef is popular as a relatively cheap and quick-cooking form of beef. Some of its best-known uses are in hamburgers, sausages and cottage pies. It is an important ingredient in meatloaf, sloppy joes, meatball
A meatball is ground meat rolled into a ball, sometimes along with other ingredients, such as bread crumbs, minced onion, egg (food), eggs, butter, and seasoning. Meatballs are cooked by frying, baking, steaming, or braising in sauce. There are ...
s, and tacos. It can be used to make meat sauces, for example, lasagna and spaghetti bolognese in Italian cuisine. In the Middle East, it is used to make spicy kofta and meatballs. The Scottish dish mince and tatties uses it with mashed or boiled potatoes. In Lancashire, particularly Oldham, minced meat is a common filling for rag pudding
Rag pudding is a savoury dish consisting of minced meat and onions wrapped in a suet pastry, which is then cooked in a cheesecloth. Invented in Oldham, the dish is also popular in Bury and Rochdale, and is eaten across the Lancashire area. Rag pu ...
. The Dutch slavink
Slavink is a Dutch meat dish consisting usually of ground meat called "half and half" (half beef, half pork) wrapped in bacon (the Dutch equivalent of bacon is, however, not smoked), and cooked in butter or vegetable oil for about 15 minutes. A var ...
consists of ground meat (half beef, half pork) rolled in bacon.
Raw, lean, ground beef is used to make steak tartare
Steak tartare or tartar steak is a dish of raw ground (minced) beef. It is usually served with onions, capers, mushrooms, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and other seasonings, often presented separately, to be added to taste. It is often ser ...
, a French dish. More finely diced and differently seasoned, it is popular as a main course and as a dressing in Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
, where it is known as filet américain ("American fillet").
Food safety
Food safety of ground meat is problematic; bacterial contamination occurs frequently. Undercooked hamburgers contaminated with ''E. coli'' O157:H7 were responsible for four deaths in the U.S. in 1993 and hundreds of people fell ill. Ground beef must be cooked to 72 °C (160 °F) to ensure all bacterial contamination—whether it be endogenous to the product or contaminated after purchasing by the consumer—is killed. The color of cooked meat does not always indicate the beef has reached the required temperature; beef can brown before reaching 68 °C (155 °F).
To ensure the safety of food distributed through the National School Lunch Program
The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (79 P.L. 396, 60 Stat. 230) is a 1946 United States federal law that created the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) to provide low-cost or free school lunch meals to qualified students through ...
, food banks, and other federal food and nutrition programs, the United States Department of Agriculture has established food safety and quality requirements for the ground beef it purchases. A 2010 National Research Council report reviewed the scientific basis of the Department's ground beef safety standards, compared the standards to those used by large retail and commercial food service purchasers of ground beef, and examined ways to establish periodic evaluations of the Federal Purchase Ground Beef Program. The report found that although the safety requirements could be strengthened using scientific concepts, the prevention of future outbreaks of foodborne diseases will depend on eliminating contamination during production and ensuring meat is properly cooked before it is served.[
The 2013 horse meat scandal found traces of horsemeat in many UK and European foods and ready meals which were labelled as being minced/ground beef products mostly.
]
See also
* Ground meat
Ground meat, called mince or minced meat outside North America, is meat finely chopped by a meat grinder or a chopping knife. A common type of ground meat is ground beef, but many other types of meats are prepared in a similar fashion, includi ...
* Patty
A patty or burger (in British English) is a flattened, usually round, Serving size, serving of ground meat and/or legumes, grains, vegetables, or Meat analogue, meat alternatives. Patties are found in multiple cuisines throughout the world.
...
* List of hamburgers
This is a list of notable hamburgers. A hamburger consists of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed between two slices of a bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with lettuce, bacon, tomato, onion, pickles, cheese, and condiments such as ...
Notes
References
External links
Ground Beef Safety
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beef Mince
Beef
Ground meat