Undercooked ground beef (mince)?

[margarita1979]

I made meatballs for DS tonight. He had already started eating it when I took a bite. They were soft in the middle, which I thought was because there was too much egg and not enough beef and bread crumbs. After dinner, I had a closer look under the bright lights of the kitchen and the inside of the meatbals looked ever so slightly pink. DH disagrees and says it's brown. Maybe I'm being paranoid as this was the first time DS tried ground beef. I'm worried about e. coli. What should I watch for if he did eat undercooked ground beef?

 

[ShelbyLC]

It's okay. As long as it wasn't bright red or still cold. I eat my hamburgers still slightly pink, which means my twins do too. He'll be alright.

 

[meli1981]

Im sure its fine, just keep an eye on him. I ate a rarer than average hamburger and did get sick, but i tend to be sensitive to certain foods

 

[JessicaM123]

I like my meat blue, and hamburgers i eat pink, sorry to be tmi but i like when they are still bloody. I don't get sick. Its white meat you want to worry about, mince and other red meats are usually fine

 

[joeyjo]

I wouldn't worry about a slight pink tinge but personally would never eat minced products rare or deliberately pink. I studied Public health at uni as part of my course at uni.

If you have a piece of meat the inside of the meat is sterile but the outside has bacteria on it. When you cook that piece of meat the heat kills the bacteria on the outside and even if the middle is very very rare you should be fine. I happily feed both my kids very rare red meat and have done since they were tiny.

If however you take that piece of meat and mince it to turn it into burger or similar then the bacteria are spread throughout the meat, if this is eaten immediately (as in very posh restaurants where they mince in front of you for steak tartar or minced at home for cooking) then I don't think it is an issue but I wouldn't risk it for other mince products that may have been minced days previously.

Poultry is different again as the cuts of meat are small and closer to bones etc.