Fast food hamburgers: what are we really eating?

Exactly What is Fast Food Hamburger Meat Made of? Pathological Analysis...

at 10/17/2013 / Posted by Fauquier ENT

I freely admit that in my youth, I loved eating burgers from fast food joints like McDonald's. But after getting married and being encouraged to eat healthier by my wife who felt fast food burgers were unhealthy (disgusting) because they weren't actually made of meat, I've always wondered what hamburger meat was truly made of...

Well... a group of pathologists actually performed a pathologic analysis on 8 different fast food hamburger meat. No... they did not identify the fast food chain where they got the meat.

What they found was both reassuring as well as alarming. Here are the key interesting findings:

• Actual meat content in a typical burger is only 12% (range: 2.1%-14.8%). The meat itself did appear normal which is reassuring. Most of the burger is actually made of water comprising 49% of the weight (range: 37%-62%)
• No brain tissue was seen in any samples (especially important when considering mad-cow disease is localized in brain tissue and can be transmitted to humans who eat contaminated tissue causing fatal Crutzfeldt-Jakob disease).
• Besides meat, other tissue types were seen including connective tissue, blood vessels, nerves, and fat (all expected in meat/muscle).
• However, cartilage and bone was also found in some samples, perhaps accrued during the butchering and processing of the meat.
• Plant material was also unexpectedly found which may have been added as a way to add bulk to the meat.
• Intracellular parasites (Sarcocystis) was also seen in a few samples which is why meat should always be cooked prior to eating (whether burger or restaurant grade A meat).

So there you have it... fast food hamburger meat actually does contain meat, though it only makes a small part of it.

Fast food hamburgers: what are we really eating?

US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health

Ann Diagn Pathol.
 2008 Dec;12(6):406-9. doi: 10.1016/j.anndiagpath.2008.06.002. Epub 2008 Jul 26.
Prayson B1, McMahon JT, Prayson RA.

Americans consume about 5 billion hamburgers a year. It is presumed that most hamburgers are composed primarily of meat. The purpose of this study is to assess the content of 8 fast food hamburger brands using histologic methods. Eight different brands of hamburgers were evaluated for water content by weight and microscopically for recognizable tissue types. Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) staining was used to evaluate for brain tissue. Water content by weight ranged from 37.7% to 62.4% (mean, 49%). Meat content in the hamburgers ranged from 2.1% to 14.8% (median, 12.1%). The cost per gram of hamburger ranged from $0.02 to $0.16 (median, $0.03) and did not correlate with meat content. Electron microscopy showed relatively preserved skeletal muscle. A variety of tissue types besides skeletal muscle were observed including connective tissue (n = 8), blood vessels (n = 8), peripheral nerve (n = 8), adipose tissue (n = 7), plant material (n = 4), cartilage (n = 3), and bone (n = 2). In 2 hamburgers, intracellular parasites (Sarcocystis) were identified. The GFAP immunostaining was not observed in any of the hamburgers. Lipid content on oil-red-O staining was graded as 1+ (moderate) in 6 burgers and 2+ (marked) in 2 burgers. Fast food hamburgers are comprised of little meat (median, 12.1%). Approximately half of their weight is made up of water. Unexpected tissue types found in some hamburgers included bone, cartilage, and plant material; no brain tissue was present. Sarcocystis parasites were discovered in 2 hamburgers.