Will it stop you buying frozen ready meals

Snowy_Owl

I'm not a fan of shop-bought ready meals really. I would knowingly eat horse meat.

the problem I have is, if I want to buy a beef product, I expect to buy beef, the same with pork, etc, etc. I have no problem trying different types of meat. It's the whole trading standards thing that worries me rather than eating the horse meat.

ash28

I used to buy ready meals once a year - when we went on holiday and left our teenagers behind (older teenagers of course), then I used to stock up a ready meal each for their dinner - they used to come shopping with me to choose them. That would have 12/13 years ago.

There were too many of us (5) to even think about buying ready meals when the kids were young - it was far cheaper to make a meal for us all.

I have bought Birdseye beefburgers - but not for along time.

However I have bought MacDonalds and Burger King for the grandson.

I have no objection in principle to eating horse - I eat plenty of other meats - chicken, turkey, pheasant, beef, pork, lamb etc. As long as it was bred for human consumption and not stuffed full of drugs, I would have objection (in principle).

I don't buy ready meals because of the cost of decent ones and the crap in cheap ones.

taplady

like most of you I prefer to make my own but do have the odd ready meal in the freezer(for DH as he eats meat and I don't) in case of emergencies.

However I think I need to get cracking in the kitchen and make my own 'ready meals' to freeze. It's just hard working full time and fitting in a lot of batch cooking but I will try harder I think, especially as DH has been diagnosed as type 2 diabetic and needs to be eating more healthily.

I think it's the fact that people have been lied to about the ingredients that makes people so angry - it does make you wonder what will come to light next doesn't it!

Pitlanepiglet

I don't mind the idea of horse meat, we've eaten it in France and IMO if you eat meat you accept the fact that animals are killed for it and that's cute little piggies, bouncy little lambs and the like so no I don't have a problem with horse.

The issue for me is the misrepresentation and the fact that someone thought it was OK to screw a few more euros in profits by substituting a product. I don't know where that decision was made, possibly a long way down the food chain (pun intended) but the remainder of the chain then failed to have robust processes in place to identify the problem. There is then the issue of the safety of the substituted meat, if it's come from a dodgy source are there chemicals and drugs in the meat that might be problematic.

Primarily, it's indicative of the "profits are all" culture that has no ethics or morals and we're seeing in banking, politics and vast chunks of the rest of our culture

Byatt

I eat meat, but I do feel I have a right to "choose" the type of meat I eat, even though I am not a vegetarian. I understand that choice might change if there was no other food available. I have eaten horse unintentionally when on a French truck line ferry. I didn't enjoy it even before I realised it was horse. Why as a non vegetarian am I mocked for being appalled that horse meat is being passed on as beef and why am I being blamed for trusting big named companies to tell me the truth about their products? Why as a meat eater am I being treated as if I have no standards or a belief in animal welfare?

It is not just about horse, pork has been found in products where for religious reasons it's not allowed.

Also, my DD is autistic and buys ready meals although thankfully she has never liked beef and doesn't eat it. It's not just people who feel they are short of time, but those who cannot cook because of safety issues. I also ate ready meals when suffering from severe depression, although again, not beef.

I don't eat dog or cat and wouldn't want to find them in any food labelled something else. I don't eat veal or venison either or duck pate. That is my choice but I don't mock others for eating it if they choose.

Rainbow82

I've been vegetarian for 17 years and dont buy any ready meals because I dont like some of the crap that goes in them but if I did then I think it would stop me buying them, not because it is horsemeat but because nobody knows where it has come from, how it was slaughtered and if it contains any drugs such as phenylbutazone. It has entered our food chain illegally and could realistically contain anything. I would happily buy and cook horsemeat for OH if it was wanted but I would want to know where it was from etc.

Byatt

Rainbow82 wrote: »

I've been vegetarian for 17 years and dont buy any ready meals because I dont like some of the crap that goes in them but if I did then I think it would stop me buying them, not because it is horsemeat but because nobody knows where it has come from, how it was slaughtered and if it contains any drugs such as phenylbutazone. It has entered our food chain illegally and could realistically contain anything. I would happily buy and cook horsemeat for OH if it was wanted but I would want to know where it was from etc.

Totally agree. :T

alltrustgone

Pitlanepiglet wrote: »

I don't mind the idea of horse meat, we've eaten it in France and IMO if you eat meat you accept the fact that animals are killed for it and that's cute little piggies, bouncy little lambs and the like so no I don't have a problem with horse.

The issue for me is the misrepresentation and the fact that someone thought it was OK to screw a few more euros in profits by substituting a product. I don't know where that decision was made, possibly a long way down the food chain (pun intended) but the remainder of the chain then failed to have robust processes in place to identify the problem. There is then the issue of the safety of the substituted meat, if it's come from a dodgy source are there chemicals and drugs in the meat that might be problematic.

Primarily, it's indicative of the "profits are all" culture that has no ethics or morals and we're seeing in banking, politics and vast chunks of the rest of our culture

Absolutely spot on.

Honey_Bear

Rant Alert!

I am sick to death of paying regulators who don't do their jobs. The Financial Services Mob allowed the banks to do things that were, at best, seriously iffy like the Libor issue. Shropshire health authority and their auditors didn't lift a finger while patients were dying needlessly- and don't tell me no-one complained to their MPs about lack of care in those hospitals - I used to manage a hospital complaints department and everyone knew where the problems were. (They were tackled.) The Care and Quality Commission allowed the scandalous lack of care to continue at a residential home for adults with learning difficulties and the Food Standards mob apparently think that all they should have done is read the labels. Why, for goodness sake, do I as a tax payer have to pay these leech's salaries for not doing their jobs? They're working hard at the moment thinking about whether something with fat in it should be flagged up as fattening, but not apparently bothered about no-one actually checking that what it says on the tin in actually in the tin.

As to ready meals - I can't afford them because I'm too busy trying to make a living to pay tax for the government to pay people not to do their jobs.

Rant over.

MadelinesMum

I gave up a long time ago on ready meals like spag bol and lasagne because I did not like the taste and consistency of the meat. It didn't surprise me at all when it was reported horsemeat was in some. I just hope no poor donkeys were in it - I believe horse and donkey DNA is very similar, I'd feel sad if I'd eaten a donkey because I like them very much.