Staph Bacteria Found in Half of U.S. Meat

Staph Bacteria Found in Half of U.S. Meat

What's lurking in the meat you're buying for your family? Plenty of bacteria, according to a new study, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. Almost half of all the beef, chicken, pork, and turkey bought in five U.S. cities and sampled by researchers, was found to contain drug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, reports CBS News.

"Staph" bacteria is nothing to fool around with-it can cause everything from a rash to life-threatening sepsis and endocarditis. And because we've consumed so many antibiotics, the staph bacteria isn't easily controllable by drugs. In fact, in the tests done by study researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, 47 percent of the meat contained bacteria resistant to three types of antibiotics.

Sure, you can kill "staph" by cooking the meat, but one contaminated cutting board is all it takes to set the bacteria in motion for many cooks. How many ways can we say it's time to give up the steak tartare?