More than a Far Side Gallery?
July 12, 2013 10:46 AM Subscribe
I've been wondering this for a long time and internet searching doesn't reveal any reliable answers...on average, how many cows are there in a typical hamburger patty? Bonus, how many pigs in a sausage (would this be any different and why)?
Previously: one cow yields 568 pounds of retail beef cuts, net. If you made it all into 4-oz. hamburger patties, that's 2272 patties, or .0044 cows per patty.
So, for every billion McDonalds burgers sold, they off 440,140 cows (or more, assuming they sell the filet mignons to Walmart, or something). They sell around 17 billion a year, so that's like 7,500,000 cows, in round numbers.
On preview, oh, did you mean how many different cows?
posted by beagle at 10:57 AM on July 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
So, for every billion McDonalds burgers sold, they off 440,140 cows (or more, assuming they sell the filet mignons to Walmart, or something). They sell around 17 billion a year, so that's like 7,500,000 cows, in round numbers.
On preview, oh, did you mean how many different cows?
posted by beagle at 10:57 AM on July 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
It would depend enormously on where the meat was processed. I buy my ground beef from a halal butcher, and I doubt they are working with more than half a dozen carcasses at any given instant. (I'm pretty sure they grind the meat at their butcher shop.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 11:15 AM on July 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 11:15 AM on July 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
Cite for the Clayton/Belk study above, in a paper co-authored by Belk.
posted by seemoreglass at 11:20 AM on July 12, 2013
posted by seemoreglass at 11:20 AM on July 12, 2013
Response by poster: Yes, how many different cows, please. (how now many different cow?) I'm not really interested in how many cows are processed, by say, McDonald's, but how much the meat is mixed together in a single patty. I always think of this when I buy or eat meat, which somewhat drives my choice in where I buy it.
Seconding seemoreglass' link not working...I had found this result as well, but was unable to download the source.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:21 AM on July 12, 2013
Seconding seemoreglass' link not working...I had found this result as well, but was unable to download the source.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:21 AM on July 12, 2013
Best answer: I think the original paper might be a white paper or an industry one, as it doesn't appear to be well-published and most cites are to the Buiatrics conference paper, not the original publication. Belk's faculty page is here, and it seems like he might be the best person to contact to see if there are additional sources or for the original paper.
posted by jetlagaddict at 11:25 AM on July 12, 2013
posted by jetlagaddict at 11:25 AM on July 12, 2013
I have worked in the meat department at a commercial (IGA) grocery store and at a food co-op. At both, we ground the burger fresh daily. No tricks, no filler. There were basically 2 versions, 93% lean and 80% lean, anybody good can get the mix right by eyeballing it.
Sometimes expensive steaks would be ground in the mix if they were more than 2 days old in the meat case, but that didn't happen very often.
If you are purchasing from a store that does not grind onsite... there is nothing that regulates the # of cows of origin in your burger.
I have had friends who work at big box stores that get various grades of meat and there are often fillers in the product. Anybody who has eaten at a fast food restaurant in the past 10 years is familiar with that product.
posted by bobdow at 11:27 AM on July 12, 2013
Sometimes expensive steaks would be ground in the mix if they were more than 2 days old in the meat case, but that didn't happen very often.
If you are purchasing from a store that does not grind onsite... there is nothing that regulates the # of cows of origin in your burger.
I have had friends who work at big box stores that get various grades of meat and there are often fillers in the product. Anybody who has eaten at a fast food restaurant in the past 10 years is familiar with that product.
posted by bobdow at 11:27 AM on July 12, 2013
This is kind of an offbeat suggestion, but if you do basic research and come up empty, you might try posting to reddit/r/estimation or email the xkcd author who answers hypothetical questions: http://what-if.xkcd.com/. If you get an answer, definitely post here - now I'm curious!
posted by pretentious illiterate at 12:32 PM on July 12, 2013
posted by pretentious illiterate at 12:32 PM on July 12, 2013
Response by poster: Thanks for all the links and suggestions! I contacted Keith Belk and he has provided an update on the 'number of cows in a patty' matter. It turns out that the paper* in question doesn't actually exist, but is likely the culmination of two separate research studies and was presented at a conference. At the time, Belk was working on a study** about meat contamination, but not to do with tracking beef to patties.
In sum, the 55-1062 cows idea is misinformation that has been widely circulated; the question still remains unanswered.
*Clayton, R.P. and K.E. Belk. 1998. An analysis of the number of individual beef carcasses likely to contribute muscle and/or fat tissue to a single ground beef patty. Unpublished data based on analyses performed in four U.S. beef packing plants and six beef-grinding plants in the United States. ConAgra Red Meat Company and Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
**Scanga, J. A., A. D. Grona, K. E. Belk, J. N. Sofos, G. R. Bellinger and G. C. Smith. 2000. Microbiological contamination of raw beef trimmings and ground products. Meat Sci. 56:145-152.
posted by iamkimiam at 7:47 AM on July 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
In sum, the 55-1062 cows idea is misinformation that has been widely circulated; the question still remains unanswered.
*Clayton, R.P. and K.E. Belk. 1998. An analysis of the number of individual beef carcasses likely to contribute muscle and/or fat tissue to a single ground beef patty. Unpublished data based on analyses performed in four U.S. beef packing plants and six beef-grinding plants in the United States. ConAgra Red Meat Company and Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
**Scanga, J. A., A. D. Grona, K. E. Belk, J. N. Sofos, G. R. Bellinger and G. C. Smith. 2000. Microbiological contamination of raw beef trimmings and ground products. Meat Sci. 56:145-152.
posted by iamkimiam at 7:47 AM on July 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by seemoreglass at 10:52 AM on July 12, 2013