The current beef inspection policies are inadequate due to which consumers face a danger from all foods containing beef. A young 22 year old woman became paralyzed after eating hamburger meat contaminated with a dangerous strain of E. coli bacteria.

A detailed investigation of Stephanie Smith's case (woman who was paralyzed by the infection) led to the finding that beef purchased as 'ground beef' is especially at a high risk for contamination and tends to be poorly regulated in terms of quality.

The main cause was the bacterium E. coli. Ground beef is more vulnerable to the bacteria as it comes from various sources ground together in a process that makes contamination possible in every step.

The source of the tainted hamburger was tracked down to different slaughterhouses and packaging plants in the U. S. and Uruguay. Insufficient testing and careless mechanisms led to the infected burger.

One federal officer who requested anonymity said, "As the trimmings are going down the processing line into combos or boxes, no one is inspecting every single piece".

The American Meat Institute said that it was definitely perfect but it has made some reasonable improvements.

"Ground beef is not a completely safe product," said Dr. Jeffrey Bender, a food safety expert at the University of Minnesota who helped develop systems for tracing E. coli contamination.

One important thing to note is that a vast majority of people infected with E. coli get better on their own but clearly the minority of the cases that are severe can be deadly.