Horse Meat Scandal

I buy majority of my meat at a local butcher... but when dining out, what are we getting?!

Your question makes me wonder why our take out Chinese restaurant has beef that does not taste like beef. I told my husband recently we are not ordering Beef off the menu anymore because I am certain it is not Beef! IF people want to eat horse meat buy it and label it and make sure the horses pass health tests, however do not label it beef.

I agree with the poster who said there are many unknown things in the processed food supply. It is scary to even think what is in the food. I seldom eat processed food.

In a news article I recently read Popcorn in the USA is GMO Corn 90 % of it especially in the microwave bags. The scorching heat and drought caused poor crops so GMO corn is being sold to the consumer without them knowing it with anything that contains corn. I do not know if it is the same in Europe. The consumers has a right to know what we are eating. I do not want to eat Genetically modified food all I ask is put it on the label give people a choice.

In Europe we would have to pay twice the price for organic fruits and veggies all because we do not want pesticides on our food. I often wonder if prices are not just hiked and the stores are selling non organic food at the higher prices.

After you put the horse's head in someone's bed, its just a waste to not use the meat.

Im afraid Im a little bit of a snob when it comes to processed burgers, ready made meals etc and think that if you buy a lasagne for 1quid you kind of get what you deserve! You certainly get what you pay for. one lady here said her homemade lasagne for 4 costs a fiver and an asda one cost 2quid less, how much better is that homemade one for your family than all the chemicals and preservatives than are in the asda smart price one?? For two pound I'd rather have the healthier family!
My first thought however when I heard the news (just goes to show how much using this site has gotten into my bloodstream) was I wonder if the horse meat is less calories?! Imagine you had been logging a beef lasagne and it was horse which could be lower calories! Every cloud and all that! :-)

The thing is there is only so far this logic takes you, if you ever see how much a cow or a lamb get sold for at a cattle market you'd see that meat is actually REALLY cheap. so if you are buying it on mass, and also only buying cheaper cuts its possible to get the price to be substantially lower. I used to live near a farm that offered a free butchering service if you bought a whole lamb, did it on a couple of occasions with a mate and we had loads, and only spent about £30.
It is possible to make meals cheaply on mass (just ask a good restaurant).

Very true and I understand your point but in the lasagne case it's not just the meat you are buying for one pound, it's meat, butter flour milk and cheese or whatever they make their white sauce with, tomatoes spices flavourings for the tomato sauce, plus chemicals to preserve and whatever else they decide to put in, more flour and eggs that have made the pasta sheets, plus a foil tray, plastic wrapping, cardboard packaging, packaging printing, manufacturing and transport costs...all for 1 pound? I'd make my own!

Horse meat is actually quite tasty. Don't know what the big rub is on it being horse. I had horse sashimi when I was in Okinawa.

I got the "it's not beef and was advertised as such" logic, and I can agree with it. Just the "OMG it's horse!" thing boggles my mind.

Kinda like when people turn up their nose at Bison ("That's weird!") or lamb or anything not cow/pig/chicken.

Hit the nail on the head. Not telling people about it is a little BS but I don't get how one meat is better than another meat especially considering some of the chemical filled crap even the most average healthy person puts in their bodies. Calm down. It's just meat.

I totally agree with this ^^

It infuriates me that people turn their noses up at things like venison, veal, wild boar, game birds, offal (liver/kidneys/black puddings) and even lamb but are all for eating chemical filled processed chicken/beef/pork meals because those things are "normal". There is a world of yummy organic/free range natural meats & meat products out there if you are a meat eater you should try!!

you've still got to TRUST your butcher in many cases.

im just so thankful that i love cooking and cook everything from scratch.
i dont think its the fact that its horse meat thats a problem, just the fact you dont actually know what you're getting.
urgh makes me feel sick to think what else is in there.

horse meat can contain an anti-inflammatory drug called bute, which cannot enter the food chain for human food consumption as it can cause sickle cell anemia basically bone marrow and blood disorders

I'm not sure this can be true. Sickle-cell is genetic.

In all seriousness I dont think I'd necessarily mind eating horse, the annoying bit is just not being told!

I agree... cow, horse, what does it really matter? I'm sure some people would mind though so yeah the not being told thing is annoying.

I'm not going to claim to be any kind of expert in DNA but has anybody else thought it a possibility that genetically modified cows might be identified genetically as closer to horses if tested? (No idea if this is even possible, just a thought!)

It's not about it being just horse meat. It's about what the horses are medicated with that is so harmful for human consumption.

That being said processed foods are harmful for human consumption so why on earth would anybody eat them, horse meat or not?!

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/lamb-veal-and-game-products/4639/2

I don't know. It looks pretty healthy other than the pharmaceuticals injected into them. Then again, we all know most cows and chickens are juiced more than your average pro athlete.

I would dare say that horsemeat was the healthiest thing to happen to fast food in a long time.

I'm not a vegetarian, and never will be, and I'm not hypocritical enough to get all squeamish over horses when I cheerfully chow down on baby sheep - BUT I do get very squeamish at not knowing what I'm eating. If nothing else this may make more people consider their diets and their consumption of overly processed foods. I will be frequenting my local butcher's more - there if you want mince they mince a piece of steak in front of you - at least you see what goes into it, and they will allow you to see them making their sausages (with minced pork shoulder and seasoning) if you wish. It may cost a few pence more, but rather that and know what I'm feeding my kids than playing Russian Roulette with the food industry!

I don't tend to buy the products the horse meat has been found in so I'm not overly concerned to be honest! I just hope they don't find more meat products which aren't what they are supposed to be. I don't think I'd eat horse by choice as we've always had them growing up so they feel more like pets to me than food.

Is anybody really concerned about the fact that our food contains bits from all over the place, the cost to our nation in terms of our health, employment, farming and industry is outrageous. For gods sake why, when we have a recession, can't we produce food to feed our nation in our nation. Chefs have been advising for years to eat stuff in season and locally produced; the money goes back into our economy, our communities, rather than shareholders of huge global corperations; the more we produce and buy locally the cheaper food will get, we will have genuine competition to ensure a fair deal. Farmers in Britain are paid a pittance for their produce only to have it shipped all over the world to come back as ready meals; who knows what's added along the way and for pity's sake, think of the animal's welfare.
You only have to watch some of the programmes on health and safety and food hygiene to realise that if there's a buck to be made then people take shortcuts; they don't care about the health of the nation or whether their practices will spark an outbreak of e.coli. or whether the meals they offer contains meat stuffed with anti biotics and hormones that will lead to illness and antibiotic resistant bugs. The only problem is to them is if they get caught doing it. I believe that if we eat meat we should honour the animal that feeds us by letting it grow as nature intended; without hormones and antibiotics to counteract questionable rearing practices just to make an animal bigger or ready for slaughter sooner or for convienience because huge corperations have a contract with a farmer to supply cheap meat.