Wegmans Unveils Irradiated Specialty Burgers and Sliders

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May 11, 2010

Wegmans is offering customers a new twist on its store brand specialty burgers and sliders this grilling season –– fresh ground beef that has been irradiated for extra food safety so customers can enjoy their burgers at their favorite temperature.

“You can cook it the way you like it,” Wegmans said in a statement. These “may be the most fuss-free burgers on the market –– no prep, no clean up –– just loads of great taste and an extra layer of food safety built right in.”

Arriving in stores this month, the ready-to-cook pre-portioned burgers come in six flavors: Mushroom-Swiss (made with gourmet mushrooms and Gruyere cheese), Bacon Cheddar, Blue Cheese, Vidalia Onion, Cracked Pepper and Plain.

Wegmans has sold irradiated ground beef under its own label for several years and has offered flavored, grill-ready burger patties. New this season is the extension of irradiation to its specialty burgers and sliders.

“For years we’ve told customers to cook ground beef to 160 degrees to eliminate the risk of harmful bacteria and to use an instant thermometer to be sure,” said Jim Locicero, category merchant for beef and ground beef. “That advice still holds for non-irradiated ground beef. But we wanted to give our customers more latitude to cook burgers the way they like, so we switched this year to using irradiated ground beef for our specialty burgers. The result is an incredibly juicy burger!”

Irradiated beef reduces dangerous bacteria, such as E. coli, that may be in meat, but otherwise tasted just like traditional fresh ground beef, the company said, adding that quality and nutrition are also the same.

Ground beef to be irradiated is packed in airtight packages and shipped refrigerated to a facility in Iowa. Each package passes through a concentrated beam of electrical energy and in a few seconds comes out the other side as a safer product, the company explained. This process has been endorsed by all major health and food safety organizations, including the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association.
Citing myths about irradiation the company said, “the meat is not radioactive, and no radioactive wastes are created by this (electron beam) process.”

Irradiated fresh ground beef has enjoyed wider acceptance as customers learn about its food safety advantages, according to Wegmans. Sales of irradiated ground beef have been growing at a faster rate than traditional ground beef, Locicero added.

To preserve the food safety advantage of irradiated ground beef, Wegmans’ Meat Department employees follow a detailed protocol for batches of the specialty burgers. Each store has a designated area where they’re made. The area is cleaned and sanitized, and can’t be used for anything else while a batch is being made.

“Customers should also follow good food safety rules in their homes; to keep irradiated ground beef safe, separate it from other raw meat and poultry,” said Bev Vandermeer, category merchant for meat and seafood at Wegmans, which operates 75 store in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland.

The specialty burgers come in packages of two patties, each weighing one-third of a pound. The sliders come six to a package, and weigh 2.5 ounces each.

The Rochester, N.Y.-based grocer said it will continue to offer Wegmans brand irradiated fresh ground beef in one pound packages, in 90-percent lean and 80-percent lean varieties.

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