Ground meat of any sort is dangerous as far as food safety laws are concerned and must be cooked beyond what is usually palatable to make it safe.
Usually, only the outside of a piece of meat can get contaminated, the inside is pretty much sterile until it begins to autolyze and toxins begin to form.
The problem with ground meat is that the outside becomes the inside and there is no way to wash away fecal contamination.
Everybody that's anybody grinds their own meat.
We all agree on this autogrinding, but steaks used to be relatively safe as any surface contamination would likely be sterilized in the searing process. Not so when the processors tenderizers poke lots of little needles or blades into the meat injecting any surface contamination deep into the meat that will likely stay viable if only cooked to rare by conventional grilling. Those bugs will also happily proliferate inside the meat, waiting for their chance at you. You may not be able to tell if meat has been tenderized, if not labeled as such.
I would not buy tenderized meat, but if I accidentally did or someone asked me for advice, I would tell them that I universally use Sous Vide technology on all steaks and most chicken, as it is the safest way to ensure meat sterilization without totally immolating meat to well done terminal status, an insult to the meat! Its also the best way to cook them for taste and consistency!
TAT
