Americans in a jam over tainted burgers

The scare began following announcements last week that Arkansas-based Hudson Foods recalled 1.2 million pounds of beef last week after some of it was found to be contaminated with E Coli 0157:H7 bacterium that could cause food poisoning and even death. It turned to panic on Thursday when the department of agriculture suggested the contamination could be more widespread and forced a shutdown of a Hudson plant and recalled 25 million pounds of potentially contaminated meat – the largest ever such recall in history.

On Friday, many fast-food outlets like Burger Kind and Boston Market, as also grocery chains like Safewax and Sam’s Club, which receive their supply from Hudson, put up signs announcing no beef’. Even where it was available, many worried Americans forswore burgers.

Hamburgers are an American habit – the kitsch of a non-existent cuisine. A simple sandwich with a beef patty stuck between two buns, it is the ultimate equaliser, a staple eaten by everyone from the President to the plebeian (particularly this President, who is said to be a burger-buff). “It’s more American than apple pie certainly. It’s more universal, yet more representative of America than any other symbol,” says Richard Garzano, a fast-food outlet manager. An average American eats three hamburgers a week, helping nation log 40 billion hamburgers annually. Since it was contrived in the 1920’s by immigrants from Hamburg who had long eaten ground beef with bread, Americans are said to have consumed more than 300 billion hamburgers. A typical working lunch for an Average Joe would consist of a hamburger, French fries and coke, costing only around $ 3.00 – less than a fourth the cost of a sit down meal.

But several scares in the past couple of years, coupled with the brouhaha over the mad cow disease, is leading people to ask if the bell tolls for beef. Opinion is divided and statistics are misleading. Votaries of vegetarianism claim more and more Americans are turning away from meat. But at the same time, the beef lobby claims that more and more beef is being consumed – and this too is borne out by the numbers.

However, the American meat industry is again coming under scrutiny, some 70 years after Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle led to an overhaul in the industry. Central to the concern now is the damage the uniformisation’ of food by chain outlets can cause. According to one survey, a single burger can contain meat from 100 cattle from four different countries.

It is a fact though that despite the scares and increasing health consciousness that militates against red meat, consumption of burgers has increased almost 20 per cent since 1990. Experts say this has also to do with the huge increase in fast-food outlets, with companies like McDonalds and Burger King racing to open more restaurants not just in the US but across the world. McDonalds now has outlets in 103 countries.

Besides, the fast-food joints are becoming faster. It’s small wonder then that Americans have barely paused to contemplate the fallout from contaminated beef. Whether the E Coli scare will knock some sense into them is the moo point.