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

malebolge

Some of the posts in this thread are conflating two issues. I think it's fair to say that no one wants to eat meat that is not as advertised, and may not be subject to the appropriate checks. So - would I eat a product labelled beef but found to contain horse: no

It's a completely different issue to the choice of eating horse if the animal had been bred for the purpose of being eaten. Would I eat horsemeat produced for food - yes. And I have.

I think part of the problem the British population has with animals is that most meats we commonly eat are not called by the name of the animal. Eating beef, pork, venison and mutton distances our sensibilities from the idea we eat cow, pig, deer and sheep. Lamb is the exception (along with poultry) of course, but by and large we don't think about the animal when we eat.

My main concern with meat is that the meat I buy has been produced as ethically as possible, with no additives, and the animals reared well & slaughtered humanely. I would eat horse in this country with those assurances but would never eat battery chicken.

ElkyElky

Meat is meat at the end of the day. If you're willing to watch a cow die and harvest its beefy goodness then why not a horse?

The huge issue is the trust and confidence in these companies - which is now lost and some people may never trust them again.

I don't eat meat so I only have to worry about finding crawlies in my prepackaged salad.

Fire_Fox

I don''t know why anyone is getting irate about any possible chemicals in the horsemeat, if you eat Findus lasagne and the other 'contaminated/ adulterated' slop you are likely eating far worse than a few molecules of horse drugs in the 16% meat. The British public don't eat the basics of a healthy diet anyway - three servings of fruit and veg a day and one third of a serving of oily fish a week is the national average. Far more harmful than the possibility of horse of dubious origin. Most of out food animals are dosed up with chemicals during their life anyway, not many of us are eating organic meat, eggs and dairy.

I also can't understand why anyone would trust big companies to make cheap food responsibly. Findus lasagne is hardly a healthy meal packed with nutrients, Tesco has far more aisles of sugar and fat laden rubbish than it does wholefoods and they don't put the most enticing offers on produce and fish do they?

gailey_2

I wish the fsa test lamb and pork mince and test for other animal dna.

if had been dog or cat imagine the anger.

I very cross.

now paranoid and limited here shop and eating less meat from now on.

A._Badger

Fire_Fox wrote: »

I don''t know why anyone is getting irate about any possible chemicals in the horsemeat, if you eat Findus lasagne and the other 'contaminated/ adulterated' slop you are likely eating far worse than a few molecules of horse drugs in the 16% meat. ?

Wrong on so many levels.

If we don't know where the horsemeat is coming from then we do not know what is in it. Until we do, we cannot make an informed decision on whether it is safe to eat.

Fire_Fox

A._Badger wrote: »

Wrong on so many levels.

If we don't know where the horsemeat is coming from then we do not know what is in it. Until we do, we cannot make an informed decision on whether it is safe to eat.

Based on my background in pharmacy and a little shufty around the net, not simply on journalist scaremongering. Most of us haven't much of a clue where the 'real' beef comes or what is in that from either, many assume the supermarkets and manufacturers do but clearly all they care about is profits.

For example the amount of phenylbutazone found in horse carcasses has not been considered by experts high enough to be a risk, then that horsemeat was 'diluted' with beef and diluted again with the non meat ingredients in all the products before being consumed. Bear in mind bute has a short half life in a horse so the animal would have to have been dosed soon before death for there to be a therapeutic level in the blood. Realistically you'd have to eat an incredible amount of most of the meat products to get a human dose and eat that regularly to keep levels of the drug up.

If you were eating these burgers or pasta products regularly, quite frankly the bute would be the least of your worries. Look at the ingredients lists and nutrition data, consider the effects of the salt, saturated fats, additives, lack of fibre vitamins and minerals. These nasties ARE present at levels great enough to harm health if consumed regularly, additionally digesting and processing uses up micronutrients that are not being replenished by the food.

BACKFRMTHEEDGE

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Look at the ingredients lists and nutrition data, consider the effects of the salt, saturated fats, additives, lack of fibre vitamins and minerals.

That's the point. Why would you look at the ingredients list??? It's obviously unreliable. If it's not beef when the ingredients list says it is then how can you trust that the rest of the ingredients are as stated? It's more like a wish list of what the seller hopes it is!

DorsetDave2

I even had an email the other day trying to sell me horsemeat

I moved it to my SPAM folder:rotfl:

Edwardia

DorsetDave2 wrote: »

I even had an email the other day trying to sell me horsemeat

I moved it to my SPAM folder:rotfl:

Personally I'd be worried if I lived in Dorset (:wave:to anyone in Bridport or Blandford Forum) and didn't know the difference between horse and pork.. that cider must be strong

I agree with A. Badger and Fire Fox which makes me Ms Piggy in the Middle I guess. First off if it says beef, that's what it should be. Secondly, although bute would never be my recreational drug of choice, it's probably not the worst thing in the lasagna di cavallo. I was due a routine blood test so within a month of going organic my liver enzymes had improved dramatically and it's the liver which has to process all the chemicals.

There was a phone-in on BBC Radio Five Live today (radio equivalent of the Daily Mail) about Buying British. A butcher was saying that non-organic chicken breasts are 'pumped' ie pumped up with 50% glucose syrup. He told Nicky campbell that any chicken sandwich he bought in a petrol station was likely to be made of pumped Thai chicken (and he didn't mean seasoning).

BACKFRMTHEEDGE

Edwardia wrote: »

I was due a routine blood test so within a month of going organic my liver enzymes had improved dramatically and it's the liver which has to process all the chemicals.

Did you do anything else? - like quitting drink?