Фарш: состав, применение и безопасность

Beef that has been finely chopped

Ground beef, minced beef or beef mince is beef that has been finely chopped with a knife, meat grinder (American English), mincer or mincing machine (British English). It is used in many recipes including hamburgers, bolognese sauce, meatloaf, meatballs, and kofta. It is not the same as mincemeat, which is a mixture of chopped dried fruit, distilled spirits, spices and historically (but present day rare) minced/ground meat.

Ground beef is popular as a relatively cheap and quick cooking form of beef. Some of its best known uses are in hamburgers, sausages and cottage pie. It is an important ingredient in meatloaf, sloppy joes, meatballs, and tacos, and as a pizza topping. It can be used to make meat sauces, for example, lasagna and spaghetti bolognese in Italian cuisine. In the Middle East, it is used to make spicy kofta and meatballs. The Scottish dish 'mince and tatties" uses it with mashed or boiled potatoes. In Lancashire, particularly Oldham, minced meat is a common filling for rag pudding. The Dutch slavink consists of ground meat (half beef, half pork) rolled in bacon. Raw, lean, ground beef is used to make steak tartare, a French dish. More finely diced and differently seasoned, it is popular as a main course and as a dressing in Belgium, where it is known as filet américain ("American fillet").

Food safety of ground meat is problematic; bacterial contamination occurs frequently. Undercooked hamburgers contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 were responsible for four deaths in the U. S. in 1993 and hundreds of people fell ill. Ground beef must be cooked to 72 °C (160 °F) to ensure all bacterial contamination—whether it be endogenous to the product or contaminated after purchasing by the consumer—is killed. The color of cooked meat does not always indicate the beef has reached the required temperature; beef can brown before reaching 68 °C (155 °F). To ensure the safety of food distributed through the National School Lunch Program, food banks, and other federal food and nutrition programs, the United States Department of Agriculture has established food safety and quality requirements for the ground beef it purchases. A 2010 National Research Council report reviewed the scientific basis of the Department's ground beef safety standards, compared the standards to those used by large retail and commercial food service purchasers of ground beef, and examined ways to establish periodic evaluations of the Federal Purchase Ground Beef Program. The report found that although the safety requirements could be strengthened using scientific concepts, the prevention of future outbreaks of foodborne diseases will depend on eliminating contamination during production and ensuring meat is properly cooked before it is served. The 2013 horse meat scandal found traces of horsemeat in many UK and European foods and ready meals which were labelled as being minced/ground beef products mostly.