Orwell must be up there somewhere, smiling wryly.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-02-11/patriot-coal-plant-spills-waste-2-months-after-bankrupt

So in essence, there is no way for me to track my 2 lbs of beef I purchased that week?

Never buy ground beef in prepackaged plastic tubes. It is called Packing House Ground Beef and that is enough said. Buy only ground beef that is ground and packaged in the store,when in doubt,ask the meat person on duty. If they have a fresh meat case,there you go,problem solved.

or have it ground or grind it yourself

Large meat packing plants have inspectors on duty all the time. Not so in your local store so you are relying on their mostly unsupervised cleaning methods.

If I want ground meat, I'll buy the cuts I want and grind it myself. That way I'm assured that if I want ground chuck, I'm getting ground chuck instead of lips and assholes. I'm also assured my grinding implements are perfectly clean before the grinding starts, not hours before.

But,probably 99.99% would not have a clue. BTW,Packing House Inspectors,yah right,that is becoming a Oxymoron. After Grassley got done with the FDA and the Meat Inspectors,you might find one Inspector in a Plant,it is called Self Inspecting. And we wonder why our food supply and sources are suspect.

Previous inspections were only what the inspectors could detect with their senses, which means no pathogen testing was being done. You can see or smell e. coli. Now pathogen testing is mandatory at all levels of production. The inspectors are still in the plants, but instead of being responsible for doing the actual inspection, they are now overseeing the testing process the plant uses. It's a much more science based system. That being said, there's still more risk with ground meat.