A new report on hamburgers revealed that customers are getting more than they bargained for. Using their own molecular analysis techniques, Clear Labs sampled 258 pieces of hamburger meat from 79 brands and 22 retailers, revealing that 13.6 percent contained noticeable quality flaws such as contamination and missing ingredients. Furthermore, even veggie burger brands contained problems, with two samples containing beef DNA.
"Vegetarian products may not be perceived as a traditional food safety risk, but our findings suggest that vegetarian products are problematic from both a safety and quality perspective," the report said.
Elsewhere in the report, it is revealed that 1.6 percent of the samples contained hygienic issues: one frozen burger product contained human DNA and another three contained rat DNA. In addition, germ contamination rested at 4.3 percent, with the detection of pathogens such as E.coli, Yersinia enterocolitica and Clostridium perfrigens.
Despite the seemingly alarming findings, experts suggested there is actually not much to worry about. Although the thought of consuming human and rat DNA in hamburgers is pretty gross, they likely fall within the acceptable levels of contamination that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows. And, as gross as it sounds, the presence of germs could mean nothing, and they might not have even been alive when the testing on the hamburgers was conducted.
"Finding the DNA of Salmonella or E.coli from a dead cell is not very helpful," said Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia. "Secondly, the pathogens they find, such as Yersinia enterocolitica and Aeromonas hydrophila, are not of common concern in foods. In terms of Clostridium perfrigens, you usually need to have millions of cells in the food in order to cause illness. And it's not uncommon to find low levels in meats, which contain some C. perfringens naturally."
In fact, the report suggested that of all of the issues found, the biggest problem is probably the nutritional content of the burgers, with 46 percent of the samples containing more calories than advertised and 49 percent of the samples containing more carbohydrates than advertised.
"Considering that FDA labeling requirements make it mandatory for most fast food restaurants to publish nutritional information on fast food menus, these discrepancies are potentially worrisome for customers who make decisions about what to order based on calorie counts and other available nutritional information," the report reads.
Doyle believes that the technology used by Clear Labs to create the report will play a big role in the food safety industry in the future.
"Overall, I think this technology is going to be of great benefit with regard to detecting purposeful adulteration of foods or indicating the presence of ingredients not on the label that may impact human health such as allergens," he said.
