A recent test on ground beef revealed 18 percent of the beef samples from conventionally raised cows contained bacteria resistant to three or more classes of human antibiotics, compared to 9 percent of samples from sustainable beef.
The new article, “How Safe is Your Beef?” published in the October issue of Consumer Reports, investigates more than 300 packages of conventionally and sustainably produced ground beef purchased from grocery, big-box and natural food stores in 26 cities across the country. The samples were tested for five common types of bacteria associated with beef—Clostridium perfringens, E. coli (including O157 and six other toxin-producing strains), Enterococcus, Salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus.