Posted: October 23rd, 2010 - 5:05pm
Source: YLE

Nearly a third of ground meat sold in Helsinki’s supermarkets gets poor or just mediocre marks for hygiene. Marinated meats don’t fare much better, with a quarter of such samples failing to meet quality standards, according to Finland’s Environmental Administration.
Between 2007 and 2009, the organisation tested some 300 meat samples from grocery shops in Helsinki. The samples included mixed minced meat of pork and beef, ground beef, ground poultry and marinated meat.
Some of the samples had traces of coliform bacteria, which is abundant in fecal matter. Yersinia enterocolitica, which causes acute gastroenteritis, was found in three of the marinated meat samples
The Environmental Administration says meat quality was poorer now than in a similar test performed eight years ago. In 2002, only two percent of samples were found to be of poor quality—now that figure is ten percent.