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'I lost my appetite': Cheeseburger served with waiver at Toronto restaurant (toronto.ctvnews.ca)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/canada@lemmy.ca
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A visitor from the U.S. got more than they asked for at a Toronto hotel restaurant when they ordered a cheeseburger on Monday night that was served with a waiver on the side.

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[–] 31 points 2 years ago (1 child)

You can have ground beef below well done, but it has to be fresh ground in clean equipment. Most restaurants that don't specialize in burgers/beef aren't fresh grinding mean on order. If you eat medium at a place that doesn't offer it you're responsible for your own decisions.

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  • [+] -17 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    I think cleanliness standards for kitchens should be governement ordained to be clean enough but to have to serve a waiver.

    If you're running a kitchen and are to dense to follow health and safety laws you shouldn't be able to operate.

    In his circumstance should the onus be placed on the customer.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The restaurant was literally following health and safety rules in place in Canada, by not offering undercooked burgers from pre-ground beef. The customer wants it anyway, so in comes the waiver. Tbh my perspective is they shouldn't have accepted if it goes against health code, waiver or not.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    You're thick as pudding.

    A clean kitchen isn't enough. If your burger was made of preground beef you can't eat it medium. If ONE of the pieces of meat that was processed that day in the factory was contaminated all the resulting ground meat is also contaminated. That's why you cook ground meat to well done.

    If a restaurant wants to offer medium burgers, or steak tartare or some other form of undercooked ground beef, they have to grind it themselves, in small batches, and use practices that reduce contamination. They'll usually still warn you on the menu because there is still a risk. There are restaurants in Japan that serve raw chicken sushi, same concept. If you ask for undercooked chicken at a restaurant, you're an idiot, unless you've gone somewhere that can do it right, which usually starts from raising their own specially vaccinated chickens.

    Restaurants that don't offer undercooked ground beef are just trying to warn you that you're being an idiot ordering undercooked ground beef. If you make burgers at home from store bought ground beef and cook them to medium, same thing.

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  • [+] -10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Or don't allow beef with contamination risks at all ... Industry standards can be enforced.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago

    That's sooooo dumb holy crap. You're so combative on things you clearly don't understand at all!

    Industry standard are never "all beef must be sterile" that's insane. Industry standards are "you're allowed max one rodent hair per 100g of food" or "you're allowed 3 insect larvae per pound of canned elderberries" (real FDA regulations). Industry standards ARE being enforced, they include minimum cooking temperatures for meats.

    I know you won't understand why "don't allow contamination risks" is absolutely brain-dead. I don't have the crayons to explain it to you. Do a couple hours of research, figure out where contamination in beef comes from and what rules and regulations are in place to reduce the exposure risk. Then look up the way typical slaughterhouses and meat processors work, including the health and safety regulations that reduce contamination risk. Then look up why steaks can be cooked medium but not ground beef. Then look up what you need to do to make raw ground beef safe like steak tartare and med burgers. Then look up the cost associated with any single test for bacterial contamination on surfaces.

    Once you've got a good understanding of the situation, in general you'll realize the regulations that are in place make sense and that more stringent regulation wouldn't solve anything in a cost effective way, nor meaningfully reduce human contamination and disease.

    That or you won't understand enough and you'll still have a crazy opinion.

    Or, just maybe, in the rare case where you're a brilliant, reasonable person, you'll support some small budding initiative already in regulatory circles that makes a small incremental improvement to safety at a reasonable cost.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    You willing to pay $100 per burger? How about $1000? A cow isn't sterile. You're starting with contaminated source, so you have to decontaminate it, test it to make sure it really is decontaminated, and seal it medical-grade sterile to ensure no contaminants are reintroduced. And it all goes out the window the moment someone screws up, which happens even with food that absolutely must be sterile, as proven by the shenanigans with baby formula over the past few years. It simply isn't worth it when cooking ground beef thoroughly is so much easier and cheaper, and most of the population is okay with it.

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