The US Agriculture Department said that the number of people cooking hamburgers for long enough and to hot enough temperatures to kill most of the common food pathogens has risen, as consumers wise up to government warnings.
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Annual food surveys have revealed a steady improvement in consumer awareness of the importance of cooking hamburgers properly to avoid contracting food-borne diseases. Fewer people are now eating hamburgers rare or still pink. Some 80% of US households reported they cook their burgers until brown or well-done, up from 76% in 1991. Less than 15% reported they ate their home-prepared hamburgers medium-rare, down from more than 20% in 1991.
Over 70% of survey respondents said they had altered their food preparation habits in response to newspaper stories about people who became ill after consuming undercooked hamburger, or after registering meat recalls.
However, government-sponsored ‘safe handling’ labels on meat packs do not seem to have had an independent effect.
Some 2-5% of consumers remain unconvinced of the dangers of raw ground meat and are continuing to eat their burgers rare.
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By GlobalData
