MSE News: Half of meat-eaters happy to eat horsemeat

I am one who is just sitting there thinking 'so what' its only horse, yes if it says beef it should be beef but its hardly the end of the world.

From what I can see horse meat shouyld be better for us then beef so I am more than happy to give it a go the moment I see it for sale at a reasonable price.

Its partly about labelling, some people do not want to eat horse and that's perfectly within their rights. Some people might be allergic to horse for example. We need to be able to trust the labelling on our food. It may be horse today but what about eating dog? Would most of us be as relaxed about that? Or meat being added to food labelled vegetarian? or soya being used instead of meat but still sold as prime beef?

However, it's also about something being added to the food chain without anyone apparently being aware of it. Prime horse instead of prime beef may not be an issue but what about knackers horse instead of prime beef, horses put down due to disease or old age and being added to the food chain? These horses (or any other kind of meat like this) were never intended for human consumption and may contain drugs or disease that are not good for us.

Horsemeat meals are drumming up a lot of interest in at least one pub

http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2013-01-29/pub-puts-horse-meat-on-the-menu/

The landlord Sam Bettany says it’s proving popular with tables in the restaurant sold out.

Whilst it started out as a one night special, I understand it's still available any day on request and the pub are considering another one night special event following the success of the the recent one.

Percy1983 wrote: »

I am one who is just sitting there thinking 'so what' its only horse, yes if it says beef it should be beef but its hardly the end of the world.

From what I can see horse meat shouyld be better for us then beef so I am more than happy to give it a go the moment I see it for sale at a reasonable price.

To me, it's a question of no-one knowing what has gone into it. I'd be perfectly happy eating horse.
But I don't want to eat anything where the manufacturer doesn't know what's in it, or where the manufacturer has put stuff in without telling us.
Because once that happens, where do we stand?
Who do we believe when it comes to allergy warnings? If they're adding horse without knowing/telling us are they adding gluten without knowing/telling us?
Who is to say that nutrition information is accurate?
How can we trust Use By dates?
How can we trust the food's safety?

This poll is misleading as it's not a straight yes/no question.

MSErs as a group want to save money. Some will eat cheap food because they don't feel they have a choicein their situation, others because they don't know how to cook and weren't brought up to appreciate good food and there will be people who choose to eat cheap food in order to afford designer clothes, vacations, SKY. booze etc.

Whatever the reason for wishing to save money, people needing/wanting to eat cheap food may well put price before any other consideration.

The poll leads people by saying how much cheaper than beef does horsemeat have to be before you would buy it.

It's irresponsible of MSE IMO to encourage people to want horsemeat. The horsemeat coming into the UK may originate in the USA as failed doped up racehorses exported via Canada or Mexico. A documentary shown just last week, filmed stolen ponies in a barn in Ulster prior to being shipped out to Europe via UK.

If people want horsemeat, fine, breed herds of ponies, make sure they are fit for consumption and pay the farmers a price that reflects the work they put in.