Meat and
Food-Borne Infections
Beyond the possibility that it may chip away
at our longevity by contributing to heart
disease and cancer, meat can also pose the
much more immediate hazard of causing
infection by disease microbes. This problem
remains all too common.
Bacterial Infection Exactly because it is a
nutritious material, meat is especially
vulnerable to colonization by microbes,
mainly bacteria. And because animal skins
and digestive tracts are rich reservoirs of
bacteria, it’s inevitable that initially clean
meat surfaces will be contaminated during
slaughter and the removal of skin, feathers,
and innards. The problem is magnified in
standard mechanized operations, where
carcasses are handled less carefully than they
would be by skilled butchers, and where a