This is one reason why Old Stylers cook meals from scratch and avoid ready meals!

Ladyhawk

seraphina wrote: »

Your original post implied that E. coli wa think th ebest example of this is pig farming in the UK - despite the increased cost, farrowing crates are now banned in the UK, resulting in happier pigs and enough consumers are happy to bear the cost..

Unfortunately this legislation has also brought the UK pig sector to it knees. Now I am not at all, for one second, saying that we should allow stall and tether rearing of pigs - it is exceptionally cruel, barbaric and unneccessary. However until we make our legal standards in the UK the minimum for imports as well as locally reared meat this will always be the case. Continental Europe's welfare standards are a complete disgrace and we should not allow these cruel products to be allowed into out country.

Confuzzled

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

At the weekend I made stock using a salmon carcase, that I'd frozen when I bought a filleted whole fish). When I strained out the bones, there was lots of good flesh, which I picked off and added to the salmon chowder I made witht he stock

Today I've made faggots using heart, liver and kidney from the Old Spot pig we raised last year I may have to be vague when the children ask what's in them :rotfl:

Penny. x

tell them it's MRM mum recovered meat and no different than what's in those nuggets from mac donalds (they don't have to know it's NOT the same and is far healthier if it suits your purposes for them not to )

Alison_Funnell

In Asia chicken feet are eaten - bone included. For millenia people have eaten bone marrow, heck they developed little spoons to facilitate the ease of marrow removal from within the bone, or the famous adage about the only thing that cannot be used from a pig is it's oink.

It's all the same thing - Waste not, want not.

Not alot different between that and an old french curiosity ( I think) that involved pulverising the body and bones of a duck/rabbit.

jexygirl

such a can of worms about to be let free (free range worms for the win!) a bit drunk and so many thoughts!

ok
buisness pov, I understand that buisness has to make money. I barely break even, but that for me is about standards, I will not use anything that isnt local / fresh / organic / home made. I could make a killing if i compromise, I look at booker deals weekly, that say I can send out scampi chips and peas, or steak and chips or a steak pie meal for £3.95 ... and still make my 63% GP (gross profit, which indicates I am covering all costs concerned)
I am a crap buisness woman, today I saw 2 peppers for 79p in morrisons, which is 100m from my local independant veg supplier who charges me 79p PER PEPPER. They have to survive without the buying power.. I go with them, despite my buisness moments... I digress yet again... blame the brandy!
My point being, a good buisness has to make a profit, and if to do that, they make a product, or find a way of getting more from something, is that not what we as OS are doing, just in a different way?
We make the most of what we have, just as these people who produce MRM are... would I eat it - no, would I buy it no, but some people do because they either dont care where it comes from or what it is, or are just trying to do their best for their family, on the income they have and dont read the labels, or arent aware / educated, and just trust the advertising. Who are we to judge. I too didnt realise that tinned hotdogs were almost vegetarian, I have been eating them for years!

On a side note, for me, legislation dictates I cook from fresh to 63 degrees if serving immediately,( nightmare for my sunday roast beef, as I cook it rare so ignore it! ) and if reheating it has to be 83 degrees or above to be safe ( I also have to record an average of reheat temps, item and temp, fridge and freezer temps twice daily, and inspect delivery vans and record the van temp and the food temp on arrival... like I dont have enough to do!) Britain however has more stringent guidelines than EU... are you confused? you should be!
Labelling is the biggest misconception. Free range doesnt mean what you think, yes it is better than battery or farmed, but isnt the image of lush green fields for rambling with loads of space, check defra. A british stamp doesnt mean its british, it could just have been packed here.
As consumers, we are led to believe a lot of things, that are not lies, but the art of a good lie, is not to tell the whole truth...

(gets off her soap box and pours another brandy)
sorry
Jex

conradmum

Ladyhawk wrote: »

Actually - that is not a fact. Food does not need to be cooked to 160C - only above 63C.

http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/tempcontrolguiduk.pdf

I'm confusing centigrade with farenheit. In the US, where the E. coli outbreak in burgers occurred, it's 160 F. Here it's 70 C. The document you link to is concerned with the holding temperature of food that's to be served hot, not the temperature it has to be cooked to initially to kill any bacteria present.

Dr Judith Hilton, Head of Microbiological Safety at the FSA, said: 'The current UK advice that burgers should be cooked to 70°C for two minutes or equivalent is upheld by this ACMSF report. Advice to consumers remains the same – to follow manufacturers' instructions and make sure that burgers are piping hot throughout, cooked until the juices run clear and there’s no pink meat inside.'
The report also concluded that use of other time/temperatures combinations should not be ruled out where producers can consistently demonstrate that the final product is safe and the process is under effective control.
The ACMSF examined the epidemiology of E. coli O157, contamination of carcasses, meat and meat products by the organism, guidance on safe cooking of burgers in the US and other countries, and industry controls to ensure the safety of cooked burgers.


http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2007/jul/burgers

voiceofreason

This is a wonderful discussion, free, frank and honest - and relatively free from "urgh, that's disgusting" nonsense.

I think I now have a bit of a crush on Seraphina.

Loadsabob

seraphina wrote: »

And I don't understand why it's called crap - it's no different from the rest of the animal.

I don't know - I think it IS different, because MRM comprises largely of cartilage, sinew and is bulked out by fat and other ingredients. Though I am against waste, I am also averse to feeding my body waste products - those which seem to have virtually no nutritional value. I don't see this 'product' as one which contributes nutritionally to the diet - calories perhaps, but little more.

I work towards using the whole animal. I will never buy supermarket meat. I was veggie for 18 years, and stopped being on the basis that I wanted to support small, local, organic producers. I don't have a lot of money, so my meat goes a long way. When I used the chicken giblets at Christmas to make the stock for my gravy, I picked off all the flesh from the neck and it was delicious. The chicken liver makes a snack with cream, on toast. I use stewing bones, trotters, am not squeamish about using the pig's heart with the liver...I sincerely believe in using the whole animal, and absolutely want to see all the meat I eat as having once been an animal, and now being high quality food for me.

It turns my stomach that factory production is required to retrieve that level of slurry from carcases, and of course there is no OS thinking behind it, it's purely economics on behalf of the producers. And this slurry is probably coming from what is potentially very low grade chicken to start with. It's almost non-food, in my mind.

But at the same time, I get angry about consumers who, when buying chicken, think of it only in terms of prepared breasts. That type of skewed buying by British shoppers leaves a lot of fantastic meat 'surplus to requirements'. (I am happy, then, for those consumers to buy and eat any processed products in which other parts of the bird/animal are hidden...Judgemental, sorry.:o)

spike7451

Nomally I dont eat this kind of processed tat but darling gf,who is a veggie,went & got the papers the other day & came back with two packs :eek: of the above turkey steaks.
Today I cooked one for lunch..jeez it was sweet tasting!And not in a good way.If I want something sweet I'll chuck a few Fruit Pastiles down my neck.
Has anyone else out there ever come accross this sort of thing before?

Needless to say,I did'nt eat the whole thing & even my cat,Daisy,refused to eat any!!

ralloctiger

We have "brown dinner day" on a tues my girls cook their own supper thay have had these before and seemed to like them but I know what you mean about sweet , the manufacturers put lots of sugar into these products to make them pallatable as well as the all the other stuff thats why they are sooooo cheap.
I always buy a supper that the kids can easily cook themselves on a tues at the moment this is oven something but they would/could do a more complicated meal I just need to keep the peace whilst I am out.
xx

guccigoo

my kids like these as well but ive never tried them and wont be going to they only have them once ina blue moon.