beef or horse - does it matter?

easy

There is a further point here. If those companies from whom we buy our food don't know what type of meat they are selling to us, how do they know that the meat being supplied is actually safe, being prepared in hygienic surroundings.

Findus were buying the made-up lasagne packs from another manufacturer, who were buying meat through an intermediary - in other words they had no idea at all where that meat came from. All food manufacturers/vendors should be inspecting (on a frequent and irregular basis) the abattoirs/farms/processing plants from which they source their raw materials.
And they should be made accountable when it goes wrong.

Jegersmart

easy wrote: »

There is a further point here. If those companies from whom we buy our food don't know what type of meat they are selling to us, how do they know that the meat being supplied is actually safe, being prepared in hygienic surroundings.

Findus were buying the made-up lasagne packs from another manufacturer, who were buying meat through an intermediary - in other words they had no idea at all where that meat came from. All food manufacturers/vendors should be inspecting (on a frequent and irregular basis) the abattoirs/farms/processing plants from which they source their raw materials.
And they should be made accountable when it goes wrong.

yes, this is what I am saying. And I would it apply it to most things in our food chain. Google "pink slime", "meat glue" and "danish farmer gmo".

J

mr_fishbulb

easy wrote: »

There is a further point here. If those companies from whom we buy our food don't know what type of meat they are selling to us, how do they know that the meat being supplied is actually safe, being prepared in hygienic surroundings.

Findus were buying the made-up lasagne packs from another manufacturer, who were buying meat through an intermediary - in other words they had no idea at all where that meat came from. All food manufacturers/vendors should be inspecting (on a frequent and irregular basis) the abattoirs/farms/processing plants from which they source their raw materials.
And they should be made accountable when it goes wrong.

They don't know. They are lying when they put out statements saying "There is no risk to consumers". How can they know if there are any banned substances in the meat if they don't even know what animal it is?

Blaming the supplier is Teflon-sholdered tat. Companies have to take responsibility for their whole supply chain. They need to ensure there are controls in place so things like this don't happen. People like Tesco and Findus should be held accountable for this. They can't just say "Derrrrr we didn't know what was happening. We just put whatever meat we were sold into the packaging and onto the shelves".

Beetlemama

For years we've been muttering "This doesn't even taste like beef..." I see it all now.

droopsnoot

Jegersmart wrote: »

Horses are treated with drugs that are not for use in the human foodchain, phenylbutazone is one of them. This is the main cause for concern, along with the bigger scenario in that we simply do not know what is in our food. You think horse meat swapped for beef is the only case?

Precisely the issue, it's not about the meat itself.

I see this as an obvious result of the larger businesses continually forcing down the prices that they pay to the farms that provide the produce. I may be wrong, it has happened before.

AlexMac

A worrying new development is that since his skeleton was disinterred in a Leicester car park, his ghost has been spotted several times by the frozen food aisles in Tescos.
He has been crying out.... (all together now!) "My.....

AlexMac

RIchard III that is

atush

I have a house in france, and in every supermarket you see horse for sale.

I don't see this as a health issue, and I would have no problem in eating horse. I don't, as I don't even like french beef much (in steak form it can be tough). Obv chemical contamination can be a problem, but Bute was not found in harmful quantities even in the products that contained 100% horsemeat.

I see this as a criminal fraud issue and a food labeling issue and look forwards to seeing some prosecutions for the criminals and ramifications for the companies (esp Comigel and Silvercrest) concerned. I am also worried about the care and treatment for the horses used in these cases, esp the ones from Romania.

I don't see sticking it to Tesco as much help as they were duped like the public. Findus has some explaining to do given they were aware of the problem for days before telling the public and stores who carry their products.

johnnybebad2000

atush wrote: »

I have a house in france, and in every supermarket you see horse for sale.

I don't see this as a health issue, and I would have no problem in eating horse.

I would bet that the majority of people do tho, especially if it contained Bute which is banned from entering our food chain

I don't see sticking it to Tesco as much help as they were duped like the public. Findus has some explaining to do given they were aware of the problem for days before telling the public and stores who carry their products.

Tesco are the UK's biggest supermarket. It has to be their fault. If it wasnt for them searching for the cheapest way to sell meat then they wouldnt have to import cheap. Why have all these measures and precautions over UK meat when we ship in from other countries that dont have the same measures.

If anything good has come of all this is its raised public awareness and people will support local traditional butchers.

jimjames

johnnybebad2000 wrote: »

If anything good has come of all this is its raised public awareness and people will support local traditional butchers.

I completely agree. Hopefully it will mean people think more about what they eat. While cheap food might be good in some ways the process has gone too far when it reaches the stage of having no idea what the contents of prepared food are and no easy way to verify when that food has been made from processed ingredients from all over the world.