New Methods Help Make Beef Jerky Safer

Good news for meat lovers in a time of massive beef recalls: Researchers at Kansas State have found a way to make beef jerky safer from E. coli and salmonella, LiveScience reports. They found that a longer drying time would eliminate the pathogens in contaminated beef samples, offering a low-cost way for producers to comply with federal standards.

"The number of small plants producing jerky and other meat products has declined rapidly since the 1990s," said researcher Elizabeth Boyle, citing small producers’ difficulty in complying with stricter standards. "We hope that our research has provided a process for small processors that produce safe beef jerky without creating an extra burden," said a fellow scientist. (More beef jerky stories.)