Horsemeat scandal..

So I don't know if this has made it into the US/Canada/Aus etc yet? But it's all over Europe..

Basically, value beef products from massive global brands like Tesco have been found to have horsemeat in them, despite being sold as '100% beef'. Some Findus beef lasagne was found to be made of 100% horsemeat. And this horsemeat has found its way into schools, hospitals as well etc., and a few tested horse carcasses have been found to contain bute, and so obviously not safe for human consumption.

Was wondering what everyone's thoughts on it were.. Personally I think the consumers are partly to blame - I mean, what did they expect was in meat so cheap? Wouldn't surprise me if McDonalds etc was horsemeat either. At home we always buy meat from the butchers of British/locally sourced meat. But I'm a student and spend hardly anything on food haha, but if when I'm at uni my food budget is low, I always go without meat rather than just buying cheap products! But I also think it's so bad that the supermarkets themselves didn't check - especially since British farmers have to jump through so many hoops to make sure their meat is safe, why can rubbish meat from the continent get here labelled as the wrong species altogether?! I don't have a problem with people eating horse (although it's not done in the UK, obviously culturally it's ok in places on the continent), but so bad that it's been mislabelled..

But what do people think about it? I'm planning on doing my dissertation on this and how it's influenced consumer patterns in buying meat (like going to a butchers instead of supermarket etc), and how perceptions on meat vary in rural vs. urban environments etc, so any discussion will help inspire what research I do!!

I've been reading about this since it started, being in Canada we're a lot more privy to the things happening in Britain and the surrounding area due to our close relationship.

In general, eating horsemeat doesn't shock me at all but clearly that this could happen on such a massive level is proof that we need to STOP trusting the government with our food. Here in Canada, home of possibly the most diverse farming, there are always story's of some poor farmer getting sued or charged because he had the "audacity" to sell his eggs or raw milk without "government inspection" (aka. cash grab). They try convincing us it's for our own safety, but how safe has our government kept us?! Every day it seems there's some new recall for salmonella in spinach or E. coli in beef. And 90% of the time, they never find it before someone get's severely sick and/or dies. I SORT OF understand the concept that at least they can track it and recall it, but I have been eating farm raised meat my entire life and never once got sick from it. And I mean farm raised as in my grandpa raised it, shot it, skinned it, and packaged it. I've had raw milk, raw eggs, you name it. The only shit I have EVER gotten sick on was what I've eaten in a restaurant and/or grocery store.

I'm all for eating meat, but this factory farming has just got to stop. It's so unhealthy, both for the animals and for us. We also have to quit trusting enormous corporations who's only vested interest is money to keep us healthy. I'm not much into conspiracy theory, but after reading some of my sister's research into the topics of health and food, I do firmly believe that a lot of the hogwash we're given is propaganda to keep us sick and keep the big corporations in control.

We need to get out of the grasp of the corporations, or things like this will just continue to happen and get worse. How long before they discover ground up human flesh in our food source?

If people want to eat horse meat, then I don't have a problem with that. What I have a problem with is when something is sold as 100% beef (or whatever kind of meat) and it has other kinds of meat in it. That is wrong and misleading to the consumer.

There has been scandal recently here in the US as well with horse meat showing up in beef products. I know there was an issue with Burger King putting horse meat in their burgers, and maybe Taco Bell? I don't remember for sure with that.

I agree with Moki as well in what is going into our meat, produce, and food in general. The animals are pumped full of so many hormones which then the person who eats it gets as well. The produce has so many insecticides and other harmful things on them. It's terrible what we put into our bodies just from food. Even when trying to eat "healthy" foods. If I could, I would grow and raise all my own meat and produce, but unfortunately that isn't possible.

Huge like.

I fully intend to have a massive vegetable garden and raise my own meat animals when me and Shay-la have a farm. I know more than enough farmers and packing plants who will process the carcass for me and then I know what's going into my body. I need to learn how to make preserves and such as well for the winter months!

They were testing all the meat sold in supermarkets recently for horse meat, here in AUS, it came all came back fine as far as i'm aware but I'm terrified to by meat from the supermarkets now

I just want to say, I worked at McDonalds for 3 and a half years.. their meat is 100% beef. McDonald's rules and regulations are VERY strict - at least in Australia. Sorry, I just don't like people that put down a company when they haven't worked there or had experience

TequilaRainbow wrote:I just want to say, I worked at McDonalds for 3 and a half years.. their meat is 100% beef. McDonald's rules and regulations are VERY strict - at least in Australia. Sorry, I just don't like people that put down a company when they haven't worked there or had experience

But the point is that everything has been labelled as beef, so all the supermarket managers/workers etc thought it WAS 100% beef, it was just when random DNA tests were done in Ireland that horsemeat was found. But otherwise everyone would still be thinking it's beef. The meat came from a processing plant in France - had gone in as horsemeat and came out as beef. So unless McDonalds have done DNA checks for horse in all their burgers, I wouldn't trust it, as there's no way quality beef can be sold that cheaply!! That and I swear it's been proven it's all the offcuts anyway even if it is beef, which I wouldn't really want to eat haha!

Moki - I agree with what you said entirely! I think meat production really needs to be scaled back.. But people have become so used to eating value 'meat', and having no idea what parts of the animal it even comes from - its just not healthy for the people or the animals!

Well, pies in Iceland were tested and they don't contain horse meat.

Or any kind of meat....

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/03/01/wrd-iceland-horsemeat-meat-pie.html

Alright, whatever. I'm not going to get in an argument or anything but the McDonalds that I worked at got their meat in Australia so I don't think there's a problem with it. And, it is easy to sell quality meat easy because they get it cheaper in bulk. I know how McDonalds got run as I used to work there 5 days a week. They have super strict regulations and the food got test regulary to make sure there was no contamination etc. Just because the business sells their food 'çheap' doesn't mean it's gross.

Um, when did anybody bad mouth McDonalds? As far as we know, they haven't been affected by this scandal, only Taco Bell. It's fine that you worked there, but that doesn't somehow make you privy to what may be in mislabeled meat. Screw ups don't just happen at the cheap level. We just dealt with a huge salmonella recall in some of the "top names" of dog food - just because they share a manufacturer. Meanwhile brands like Royal Canin, who don't exactly produce the healthiest food, actually have the best quality control in the industry and were the fore runners of modernizing a process that detects any anomaly's in dog food.

If you don't know WHAT to test for, it can be impossible to detect an anomaly in food. You can't just "test" meat and have it magically tell you what may be in it - you have to run DNA specific tests. For all we know McDonald's burgers could have iguana meat in it if nobody has ever tested specifically for iguana! As a whole, we need to STOP trusting big money hungry corporations with our food.