Happy National Burger Day!!

Happy National Burger Day!!

I don't know about your house, but in ours? This is a National Holiday we fully support in our house and celebrate with gusto!! Nothing beats a nice juicy burger!

That makes today is the perfect day to cover a few things... 

First: When grilling your burgers, remember to use clean utensils and cook your burger to 160F. Use a probe to verify your temperature. Finally place your cooked products on a clean plate. DO NOT put the cooked product on the raw plate (unless you washed the plate while your burgers were cooking).

​Ground meat products are easily contaminated because they mix the meat as they grind it. This increased surface area allows nooks and crannies for bacteria to hide. Good burgers are often “hand-made” allowing another source of contamination. A steak can get away with being cooked to 145F because the bacteria will be on the surface. A ground meat product can be contaminated internally, so must be cooked to 160F.

​Next? Alternative Proteins. 
​
Say that out loud... Alternative Protein! It simply doesn't sound as appealing as a "Juicy Beef Burger." Amazingly enough, this "Alternative Protein" is holding its own against traditional meat.

Those who know me, know I love my meats but the Sustainability Guru side of me understands that we need to find better ways to feed the world. The biggest issue is typically with plant based proteins.  Their flavors are not ideal and texture/mouth-feel are less than desirable. Entomophagic proteins are good but the idea of eating bugs troubles the western mind. Lab grown or cell cultured agriculture is incredibly expensive and requires so many resources. It almost defeats the purpose. The end product also tends to be a bit lean so the texture seems off. A lot of money is being spent developing these products. It is starting to pay off.

---

Recently, Burger King tested their Impossible Whopper in the St Louis market. I had been asked by several people what my opinion of it was. Having tried other pseudo-burgers, I had zero desire to try this. Eventually, I succumbed to peer-pressure and gave it a shot. To my surprise, it was better than the actual Whopper.

Yes...  I said it. IT WAS BETTER THAN THE WHOPPER.
​
The amount of care and effort that went into developing this product was highly evident. The flavor was very close to real beef and there was a very subtle aftertaste. The only thing that stood out in the negative? The edges of the patty were slightly harder.

---

​This is mostly just nick-picking on my part. In all honesty, given the two products blindly, I would have picked the Impossible over the real. If they put that much care and effort into the regular burgers, McD’s would have a real reason to worry. White Castle has recently announced they are trying a new formula for their Impossible Burger. I’ll be looking for it and will let you know what I think.

---

 

​Sláinte
James
Science | Safety | Sustainability
http://www.ThatFoodSafetyGuy.com

Instagram▫️Facebook▫️Twitter @ThatFSGuy