Pink burger in restaurant

[HidCat]

Just after some opinions really. I went out for a meal with family tonight where we pre-ordered our food from an online menu. When my burger was served it was pink all the way through (2 patties), so I sent it back asking for it to be cooked through as I'm pregnant and can't eat undercooked burgers. They apologised and said they'd get me a fresh one. Fine. Replacement comes out with one burger cooked through and one still pink, though not as bad as before. I took out the pink one and ate the rest. Given the inconsistency of the burgers served within our group, I highly doubt they have the adequate controls in place to serve pink burgers safely. I initially thought I'd speak to / email the manager but he was the chef tonight so I doubt it would make a difference. Everyone in my group was concerned about this but I was the only one to send my food back / not eat the undercooked meat. I'm sincerely hoping no-one gets ill.

My question to you is this - do I report them to the food standards agency on this issue?

I would. The FSA advises against pink burgers:

www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/burgers

Depends if it was described as a 100% beef burger. I used to manage a restaurant which done a burger mix of pork and beef which also had tomato purée in so looked pink even when it was cooked

I would theres no such thing as a safe pink burger. Steak is fine because the bacteria is seared on the outside and killed whereas burgers are minced so the outside bacteria is mushed all the way through. I would complain as they didnt cook it properly on 2 occassions.

What outcome do you want?

Personally I only eat ‘pink’ burgers & wherever I go they refuse to serve them pink blue to ‘health & safety’ reasons.

Blue should read due (although a burger cooked blue would be good ).

Yeah Martha has it, pink burgers aren't safe! I find them tastier that fully cooked ones tbh, but it's rare to find them served that way in the UK. Fairly common in the USA.

That said, I ate rare steak while pregnant, it's only a very small risk in the UK, but it's not advised.

Thanks for the responses, according to FSA it is acceptable to serve a burger cooked this way provided the relevant checks are in place as core temperature must be high enough to kill the bacteria.

My concerns are a) these checks are carried out (not convinced quite frankly), b) they should damn well advertise it on their menu so you're able to ask for well done if you're at higher risk of infections (FSA says children, elderly, pregnant women and anyone with a weakened immune system should not eat burgers this way) and c) even after I requested a well done burger due to being pregnant, they still served it pink.

I'm not looking for this place to be closed down but I'm not confident in their risk management so feel like I need to raise it somewhere and I don't plan on bad mouthing them all over Facebook.

Unfortunately the trend for meat to be served rarer and rarer keeps going. Went to one restaurant where the beef came 'cooked at the discretion of the chef'.