Byte Size Biology

From Annals of Diagnostic Pathology. This is what happens when you bring a pathologist to a fast food joint. Hat tip to Laura for pointing this out.

Here were my initial thoughts about these findings. “Bleaaachhhh!” (I’m very verbal when reading scientific papers).

Eight fast food hamburger brands were subjected to a pathology examination. Here are the results, click to enlarge.

Well, it looks bad.. but. But. Cooked ground beef can have up to 60% water by USDA standards.  I would be more worried about the dry taste from the patty with 37% water. Many hamburgers have plant fillers (gluten, flour, breadcrumbs) to puff up their patties. You can only hope the places that serve them disclose that information, but probably not.  The parasites are disconcerting, but… if your burger is cooked well, you need not worry. Not that that’s any excuse for having them in the first place. Finally, unlike ground beef, the standards for burger are more lenient, and some amount of offal is accepted. Having said all that, the amount of real meat (skeletal muscle tissue) is low.. especially H7 with 2.1% (!) What are they putting in there?

OK, it is bad. Cook your own flippin’ burgers.