I don't know if restaurants use it, but irradiated ground beef is a thing[1]. It has been offered by Wegman's supermarkets[2] and Omaha Steaks[3]. Omaha Steaks

I don't know if restaurants use it, but irradiated ground beef is a thing[1]. It has been offered by Wegman's supermarkets[2] and Omaha Steaks[3]. Omaha Steaks says they use it (only) for ground beef because, "Unlike solid cuts of meat, the potential exists that surface bacteria may have been mixed within ground beef." Wegmans has a cooking temperature page[4] that gives lower temperatures for irradiated ground beef than for regular ground beef. So that's one way safe + rare is possible. Another way is sous vide. It's a "low and slow" cooking technique, and germ-killing is a function of both time and temperature[5], so it can achieve safe + rare. It's definitely more trouble to cook your burgers for 1-2 hours, though. --- [1] https://ccr.ucdavis.edu/food-irradiation/are-irradiated-foods-us-supermarkets-now https://ccr.ucdavis.edu/food-irradiation/are-irradiated-food... [2] https://www.supermarketnews.com/archive/wegmans-offers-own-irradiated-fresh-beef https://www.supermarketnews.com/archive/wegmans-offers-own-i... [3] https://www.omahasteaks.com/servlet/OnlineShopping?Dsp=5707 https://www.omahasteaks.com/servlet/OnlineShopping?Dsp=5707 [4] https://www.wegmans.com/final-cook-to-temperature-charts/ https://www.wegmans.com/final-cook-to-temperature-charts/ [5] https://douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Safety https://douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Safety