Rates of thermal inactivation of five strains of Escherichia coli O157:H7 isolated from ground beef implicated in outbreaks of hemorrhagic colitis and five strains isolated from bovine feces were determined. Ground beef (22% fat, 10 g), inoculated with individual test strains at populations ranging from 6.85 to 7.40 log10 CFU g-1 of beef, was formed into patties (0.3 cm thick and 8.0 cm in diameter) and sealed in polyethylene bags. For each strain and treatment temperature (54.4, 58.9, 62.8, 65.6, or 68.3 degrees C), 6 bags were simultaneously immersed into a recirculating water bath. Viable cells in patties heated for various lengths of time were enumerated by plating diluted samples on sorbitol MacConkey agar supplemented with 4-methylumbelliferyl-beta-D-glucuronide (MSMA) and modified eosin methylene blue (MEMB) agar. Regardless of strain or treatment temperature, higher numbers of E. coli O157:H7 cells were generally recovered on MEMB agar than on MSMA, indicating the inferiority of MSMA as a recovery medium for quantitative determination of E. coli O157:H7 cells in heat-processed ground beef. Significantly (P < or = 0.05) higher D values when enumeration was done using MEMB agar compared with MSMA. Mean D values for combined strain data at 54.4, 58.9, 62.8, and 65.6 degrees C from cultures on MEMB agar were 123.90, 6.47, 0.62, and 0.20 min, respectively, whereas D values of 25.5, 5.21, and 0.18 min were obtained at the same temperatures from cultures on MSMA. Results suggest that cooking ground beef patties to an internal temperature of 68.3 degrees C for 40 s will inactivate at least 99.99% of E. coli O157:H7 cells; z values of 4.0 and 5.1 degrees C were calculated from mean D values obtained from MEMB agar and MSMA, respectively, as recovery media. Differences in D values existed among strains but rates of thermal inactivation do not appear to be correlated with the sources of the isolates.