Eating raw beef carries real risk of bacterial infection and is not considered safe by food safety authorities. That said, the level of risk varies significantly depending on the cut of meat, how it was handled, and who is eating it. Millions of people around the world eat dishes like steak tartare, carpaccio, and kitfo, but they do so accepting a degree of risk that careful sourcing and preparation can reduce but never fully eliminate.
Why Raw Beef Is Risky
Raw beef can harbor several dangerous pathogens. Salmonella is found in 1% of raw beef carcasses and 5% to 7% of ground beef samples. Undercooked ground beef is also the most frequently recognized source of E. coli O157:H7 infection, which can cause severe illness including kidney failure. Beyond bacteria, raw beef can carry the larvae of Taenia saginata, the beef tapeworm, though the World Health Organization notes that beef tapeworm infection generally has no major impact on human health.
The core issue is that cooking is the most reliable way to kill these organisms. The USDA recommends steaks reach an internal temperature of 145°F (63°C) with a three-minute rest, and ground beef reach 160°F (71°C). Eating beef below those temperatures means relying on other, less certain safeguards.
Steaks vs. Ground Beef: A Critical Difference
Not all raw beef carries the same risk. On an intact cut of steak, bacteria typically live only on the outer surface. Searing the outside of a steak to high heat is usually enough to kill those surface bacteria, which is why rare and medium-rare steaks are widely accepted even by food safety experts.
Ground beef is a different story. The grinding process takes any bacteria that was on the surface of the original cut and mixes it throughout the meat. A rare burger can have contamination distributed all the way to the center, where it never reaches a high enough temperature to be killed. This is why health authorities are far more concerned about undercooked ground beef than an undercooked steak, and why eating ground beef raw is considered especially dangerous.
How Traditional Raw Beef Dishes Reduce Risk
Cultures around the world have long traditions of eating raw beef. Ethiopian kitfo, Korean yukhoe, Italian carpaccio, and French steak tartare all use specific preparation methods that lower (but do not eliminate) the bacterial load. Many recipes call for lemon juice, garlic, or yogurt, all of which have been shown to reduce the number of microbes present on raw meat. Acidic ingredients like citrus create an environment less hospitable to bacteria, while compounds in garlic have natural antimicrobial properties.
Professional kitchens also use a technique called “sear and shave,” where a whole cut of meat is briefly exposed to very high heat on all surfaces, then the cooked outer layer is trimmed away with sanitized utensils. The remaining interior, which was never exposed to the open environment, is then sliced or minced for serving. This approach takes advantage of the fact that bacteria concentrate on the surface of intact muscle.
These steps meaningfully reduce risk, but a Public Health Ontario evidence review concluded that they “do not eliminate the risk of foodborne pathogens from consuming raw meat dishes.” No preparation method short of thorough cooking makes raw beef completely safe.
Who Should Never Eat Raw Beef
Certain groups face far more serious consequences from foodborne illness and should avoid raw or undercooked beef entirely:
- Adults 65 and older, whose immune response to infection is weaker
- Children under 5, who are more vulnerable to dehydration and complications from food poisoning
- Pregnant women, because infections like Listeria can cause miscarriage or stillbirth
- People with weakened immune systems due to conditions like HIV, cancer treatment, or organ transplantation
For these groups, the potential consequences of a bacterial infection go well beyond a few days of stomach trouble. The same infection that causes mild discomfort in a healthy adult can lead to hospitalization or worse in someone with a compromised immune system.
If You Choose to Eat It
If you’re a healthy adult who decides the risk is acceptable, a few practices make a meaningful difference. Start with whole muscle cuts, never ground beef. Buy from a butcher or supplier you trust, and ask whether the meat was handled with raw consumption in mind. Freshness matters: raw beef should be refrigerated at 40°F (4°C) or below and used within three to five days of purchase. The longer meat sits, the more time bacteria have to multiply.
Keep everything that touches the raw meat scrupulously clean, including cutting boards, knives, and your hands. If you’re preparing something like tartare at home, consider the sear-and-shave method: briefly sear the entire outside of the cut, then trim away the cooked exterior with a clean knife before chopping or slicing the interior.
Restaurants that serve raw beef dishes are required to include a consumer advisory on their menus, typically a footnote stating that “consuming raw or undercooked meats may increase your risk of foodborne illness.” This isn’t just legal boilerplate. It reflects a genuine and well-documented risk that even the best preparation cannot fully remove.
Does Raw Beef Offer Nutritional Benefits?
Some proponents of raw beef claim it preserves nutrients destroyed by cooking. There is a kernel of truth here: water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C and several B vitamins are susceptible to heat and can be partially lost during cooking. But the trade-off cuts the other way. Cooked meat is significantly easier to chew and digest, and proper digestion is necessary to actually absorb nutrients. Your body extracts more usable protein and energy from cooked beef than raw, which is one reason cooking became universal in human food preparation in the first place. The small nutrient losses from cooking are more than offset by improved digestibility.