Do we really know what is in our meat?

What is really in our meat? Up into reading chapter 9 of Fast Food Nation, I didn’t know. I always knew that ground beef wasn’t the most healthiest thing to eat, but i never really knew that it could kill children and the elderly as well as get people seriously ill. Ever since I was a little girl i would eat ground beef, so to find out I could have suffered being ill or could have lost my life over one specific food that was popular in my family is tragic. E coli is what was found in the ground meat caused by mad cow disease. E coli is known for causing deaths in children and also bringing a disease to people who suffer with bloody diarrhea.
Another issue i found disturbing was reading about the three teenagers who got caught on a video tape showing them putting their spit, urine, and cleaning products into the food while preparing it in a Burger King in New York. Also in Los Angeles local fast food workers were caught on video tape sneezing into their hands , picking their noses, licking salad dressing of their fingers and flicking cigarettes into food being prepared to be served. I can only imagine what other things fast food employees do to the food being served. This disturbs me because we as customers eat that food and we don’t even know if their hands are clean or if they prepared it right. This can endanger our lives and can possibly lead to death.