We all know that burgers often don’t contain the highest quality meat on the market but this is a whole new level of rank…
Food testing company Clear Labs tested a sample of 258 burgers and found – two cases of meat in vegetarian products, three burgers with rat DNA and one case of human DNA reports The Independent.
Apparently the most likely cause of the human DNA is hair, skin, or fingernail that was accidentally mixed in during the manufacturing process.
But according to the report, it’s not that uncommon:
What many consumers don’t know is that some amounts of human and rat DNA may fall within an acceptable regulatory range.
They also found there are definitely ‘gaps’ in food safety and quality standards, but overall they say the beef industry has benefited from strict regulation and aggressive testing requirements.
However, a bigger concern was that over a quarter of the vegetarian burgers they tested had different ingredients to those on the label – two contained beef, and one black bean burger had no black beans in it.
Another – far more serious – problem is that 4.3 per cent of burgers contained pathogenic DNA – a major cause of food poisoning outbreaks.
Certain pathogens found in the products can cause tuberculosis-like symptoms, gastroenteritis and other food related illnesses like E. coli.
But that’s not all – if you manage to sidestep the rat DNA and potentially dangerous diseases 12 burgers in the study contained over 100 more calories than on the label.
I’ll be switching to hot dogs, they’re probably fine right?
