E Coli bacteria on beef doesn’t come from beef itself, but actually from gut bacteria from inside the cow’s intestine and intestine lining. Domesticated cattle also have some E Coli on their hide because of them walking around all day in their own shit.

Until a cow is butchered and all of these organs are being exposed and moved around, beef is entirely clean. With this knowledge, let me get into the steaks.

A lot of people don’t know that E. coli and and other bacteria can’t actually infect ever last bit of beef unless it’s directly exposed. Because the inside of the steak hasn’t been open to the elements, it’s as clean as it was inside the cow. The outer surface of the steak, the one that’s touching tables and cutting boards and everything else, is where all the dangerous bacteria is located.

Now technically, yes, raw meat has a greater risk of giving you an infection. But a lot of people don’t know \*why\* when it comes to beef, so to avoid some lawsuit, any place with a USDA certification is going to tell you that eating undercooked food is a health risk.

What actually IS dangerous is raw hamburger meat. Because it’s been all ground up together, from the bacteria exposed outside to the clean inside, you can still have multiple pockets of contaminated meat inside the burger. That’s why you NEED to cook a burger to at least medium, but not a steak.