The ammonia is only apart of the larger point in the NYT article. The real point is that the claim that ammonia gets rid of e coli may not be true.
Natural times turned that point around and made their article about the dangers of the ammonia.
I havent eating ground beef in over a decade, its garbage meat, period.
And now, your real point. I get it, you don't like ground beef.
Ecoli can’t survive proper cooking, the key is that no matter where ground meat comes from, don’t it it raw or undercooked.
If you eat a burger that is pink in the middle, I don’t care if its the best quality meat you can find, you are taking a chance at an ECOLI infection.
I personally think irradiation should be used on all industrial produce and ground meat products prior to processing. This would virtually eliminate the risk of E-Coli outbreaks.. but can’t have that word “radiation” out there, that spooks folks.