'Horse lasagne' sparks new UK food scare.

I don't think it's a case of whether horse meat is bad for you or not, but dodgy big food companies doing whatever they want and not being honest and upfront.

I don't get why everybody is so upset.

If they say their using beef then it should be beef so there is deception if they did it on purpose. They claimed they didn't know and it was supposed to be beef they were sent in their meat shipments.....

I eat beef, deer, elk, rabbit, squirrel, rattle snake regularly......
and have eaten in the past beaver, muskrat, otter, wild pig, possum and others that my native American uncle trapped every year.

Meat is Meat.....period.

It all tastes a little different but is still meat. Whats the difference between beef and pork or beef and horse?

Quit being squeamish and get over all the drama. People in a lot of countries eat horse and it's good. Horse meat carries less disease and is nutritionally better for you than beef anyways.

reply to post by mwood


Well said - this is my issue here. The major chains bought the meat in good faith. They will sue the suppliers, however thee is nothing fundamentally wrong with the foodstuff itself.

I would be more worried about cases like the 1980s sale of wine knowingly containing Ethyl Glycol that blinds people than with an additive that actually imparts flavour to an ordinarily bland substance.

Lot of but ifs being played out here - and guessing.

1) Horse meat costs more than steak - FACT - that's why I buy Donkey when I can get it.
2) There seems no real intent to deceive shown so far - this will come out in the inquiries to follow - if indeed there ever was one.
3) If you choose to deceive why add a product that has a higher intrinsic value than the base food in the first place - that's business madness?

Originally posted by Silk
reply to post by mwood

 

Well said - this is my issue here. The major chains bought the meat in good faith. They will sue the suppliers, however thee is nothing fundamentally wrong with the foodstuff itself.

I would be more worried about cases like the 1980s sale of wine knowingly containing Ethyl Glycol that blinds people than with an additive that actually imparts flavour to an ordinarily bland substance.

Lot of but ifs being played out here - and guessing.

1) Horse meat costs more than steak - FACT - that's why I buy Donkey when I can get it.
2) There seems no real intent to deceive shown so far - this will come out in the inquiries to follow - if indeed there ever was one.
3) If you choose to deceive why add a product that has a higher intrinsic value than the base food in the first place - that's business madness?

Wrong!
There IS something fundamentally wrong, it wasnt what it was supposed to be!
If you buy a chicken pie, you expect it to contain chicken and, sometimes, you will expect other food stuffs to make up the remainder.
If, what is in your chicken pie, is not what it is being sold as, then the product has been mis sold.
Im not quite sure what people dont get about that, ANY product that is purchased in the UK MUST be correctly described and, obviously, horsemeat added to meat products and the product NOT being labelled as containing said meat is incorrectly described.
I dont think there are hoardes of consumers vomitting into toilet basins at the thought that they MAY have eaten horsemeat, thats doing the consumer a massive disservice.
The beef ( exciuse the pun) is that people were not told and the products not correctly labelled.
If, as could be the case, this is all the result of organised crime, dont assume that they were that thick as to substitute more expensive horsemeat for beef.
If somebody can produce any data to demonstrate that wholesale horsemeat is more expensive than beef in Eastern Europe, then that would be a decent argument.
I suspect that the cost of old, knackered nags is probably on a par, if not cheaper than healthy cattle at European animal auctions, maybe the dead ones dont even go to glue factories anymore.....
I dont blame the Supermarket chains, this all looks to be going back to a point of origin ( Romania) and not accidental contamination either. Maybe hosemeat really is cheaper over there.

Originally posted by EasyPleaseMe

Firstly I didn't say a cookbook is THE best selling book. Feel free to show me where I did.

I have to laugh you still don't get it do you? Like I said and pointed out to you, it depends on the time frame but I think you're the sort of person that always thinks they are right.

Unless you are colin42, then I wasn't saying you said it? I was calling colin42 Sherlock, as he said the number 1 selling book was a cookbook, not you.

Not sure what you're on about.

reply to post by Silk

1) Horse meat costs more than steak - FACT - that's why I buy Donkey when I can get it.

You are talking about the high end, prime cuts. This issue is about unregulated horsemeat that is up to 75% cheaper according to a gov health spokesman on the BBC. I can’t find that quote but can support it below

Downing St call horsemeat summit

And here Findus horsemeat scandal

Food minister Owen Paterson rounded up industry bodies and retailers in an attempt to tackle what he feared was an "international criminal conspiracy" to mislead the public by passing off cheaper horsemeat as beef.

So the unregulated horse meat is cheaper.

2) There seems no real intent to deceive shown so far - this will come out in the inquiries to follow - if indeed there ever was one.

Again that is not what the articles report. From the same article above

"It may be incompetence; I fear it's actually probably an international criminal conspiracy and I'm completely determined to get to the bottom of it."

Others have stated without doubt it is an international criminal ring

3) If you choose to deceive why add a product that has a higher intrinsic value than the base food in the first place - that's business madness?

I doubt I have made a case acceptable to some here but it is not madness to get up to 75% extra for passing horsemeat as beef if you can get away with it.

Now we are hearing that schools and hospitals have fallen foul of this fraud and I have no doubt that includes the elderly in care so it is hardly just the lazy consumers fault.

This also begs the question. We were given assurances during the BSE scandal that records would be kept from birth to the counter. So how did this meat get passed off as beef without those documents?

Edit and how can they be so sure this unregulated meat is safe and not tainted. The fact is they cannot.

Originally posted by blupblup

Originally posted by EasyPleaseMe

Firstly I didn't say a cookbook is THE best selling book. Feel free to show me where I did.

I have to laugh you still don't get it do you? Like I said and pointed out to you, it depends on the time frame but I think you're the sort of person that always thinks they are right.

Unless you are colin42, then I wasn't saying you said it? I was calling colin42 Sherlock, as he said the number 1 selling book was a cookbook, not you.

Not sure what you're on about.

Still going with the name calling. I really did hurt your ego didn't I. And you still try to misrepresent what I wrote. Tragic

It's all about trade descriptions.

If you sell a burger or lasagne or anything else and describe it as containing beef but it actually contains pork or chicken or mutton or horse or mongoose or soya beans or space alien, and you do not say so on the box, then you are breaking the law.

Simples.

It all tastes the same though.

I don't understand the term "scare" being used for this thread.
I think the only thing wrong with the lasagnas is the cultural issue about eating horsemeat.
They have accepted Quorn, a meat-substitute made from processed fungus.
If someone served me Quorn unaware, I would be furious. I have a firm conviction in food being as close to the source as possible. In other words, butter is better for you than shortening or margarine because you can walk into a cow field with little more than a bucket and mixer and return with butter, but you can't walk into any vegetable field and bring back a stick of margarine.
I've have been mushroom hunting (for morels), and am aware of the farming practices of mushroom producers. This is fine.
I have never seen anything even approaching a "chicken" nugget in the woods.
So it is just a cultural thing, not really a scare.

reply to post by stars15k
The horse meat is unregulated. That means you do not know the condition of that meat. Given that you don’t know it will be classed as unfit for human consumption or at least should have been

As you say there is nothing wrong with eating horse meat. The problem arises with unregulated horse meat being sold as beef and the law suits now being issued like confetti confirms it

I'll stick to my beef.
Eating horse meat that hasn't been tested for anything is dangerous.

I don't understand people that want to eat this processed crap anyway. its cheap enough to buy mince and make your own sauces. if you are too lazy to do that then hopefully you will enjoy your horse based meal.


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reply to post by stars15k


i have made quorn a load of times for my eat the meat friends and love telling them that the chicken curry or spagetti contains no animal 90+ % are very shocked and did not notice until told

well all the good eats were culled and burned because of hoof and mouth
horse dovers anyone?

Lets hope this clears things up:

I dont understand the outcry about horse meat. yea i know its not what the customer expected (warranted for complaint) but... horse meat is actually kind of good and tasty.

no im not supporting the meat flop but just saying it isnt the end of the world if you eat horse.

im hungry...

reply to post by ugie1028


Again, it's not about the outrage of actually eating horsemeat - rather, it's the serious issue of a breach of consumer confidence and trust. Customers expect to the product to reflect what the labels state.

Originally posted by billdadobbie
reply to post by stars15k

 

i have made quorn a load of times for my eat the meat friends and love telling them that the chicken curry or spagetti contains no animal 90+ % are very shocked and did not notice until told

I'm not a big fan of uniquorn to be honest!

Originally posted by ugie1028
I dont understand the outcry about horse meat. yea i know its not what the customer expected (warranted for complaint) but... horse meat is actually kind of good and tasty.

no im not supporting the meat flop but just saying it isnt the end of the world if you eat horse.

im hungry...

edit on 2/10/2013 by ugie1028 because: (no reason given)

Hmmm yes unregulated horse meat, yummy.

All those harmful chemicals, growths and diseases that may be an ingredient just adds to the taste.

The outbreaks of Ecoli from unregulated slaughter and unhygienic conditions that we see is probably in part due to this. Slimming.

Yes it is very hard to understand the outcry.

Originally posted by billdadobbie
reply to post by stars15k

 

i have made quorn a load of times for my eat the meat friends and love telling them that the chicken curry or spagetti contains no animal 90+ % are very shocked and did not notice until told

My missus used to be a veggie when I met her - she ate all that Quorn stuff. I always find it hard to believe when people say they can't tell the difference, because as an avid lover of animal flesh, it tastes different and the texture is totally wrong.

Needless to say, I converted her back to the dark side with the foolproof bacon sarnie method.. She hasn't looked back