The Reason Costco Shouldn't Be Your Go-To Place For Steaks

Unlike most retail chains that offer a wide variety of products, Costco warehouses stock a relatively small, carefully selected range of goods that members are most likely to want. This works well for both the membership retail chain and its customers, meaning you can usually expect to get a great quality-to-price ratio at Costco. However, ensuring that products are the best customers can get for the price sometimes has caveats — Costco's steaks are a good example. That's because, while the steaks themselves are fine from a flavor perspective, you may have to cook them longer and at a higher heat to ensure they are free of any dangerous pathogens. This has nothing to do with Costco's safety or hygiene standards, which are well-maintained. It's about how the steaks are processed.

To make tough cuts tender, some steaks are mechanically tenderized using sharp blades, which includes many of the pre-cut steaks sold at your local Costco. The process can transfer bacteria to the meat's interior, meaning searing it on the grill is not enough to ensure it's safe for consumption. Instead, you must get the steak's internal temperature hot enough to kill any bacteria that may have worked its way deeper. Unfortunately, this will bring your steak out of medium rare territory. If you like yours well done, a Costco steak is right for you. However, if you like yours rare or want to make steak tartare without risking food poisoning, you may wish to look elsewhere for your meat.

Mechanical tenderizing helps loosen the fibers in the meat, giving it a more tender texture. However, it's often not possible to identify whether a steak has undergone the process with just a cursory glance. The blades that pierce the steak can have germs left over from previous pieces of meat. Alternatively, they may pick up bacteria that are present on the surface of a steak and push it into the meat during the tenderizing process. In both cases, pathogens like E. coli can find their way into the meat and there have been cases in the past of people falling ill from eating undercooked blade tenderized meat. Costco steaks that have been treated this way are specifically labeled as blade tenderized.

According to the USDA, mechanically tenderized steaks must be heated until their internal temperature reaches 145 degrees Fahrenheit, after which they must be rested for another 3 minutes. During the resting period, the internal temperature may continue to rise, so any lingering pathogens may be killed off. Unfortunately, cooking to this temperature also puts your cut closer to the well-done side of the steak spectrum. For those who like their steaks rare, it's better to get your cuts from a trusted butcher or specialty meat shop that can more clearly tell you how the meat has been processed.