Horse meat

[mercutio]

thats fighting talk

[cantaffordannsx]

Hi everyone, Reading through a lot of this does kind of reiterate the point I made really badly last time.........

The issue is not the quality of food (processed or otherwise). The simple fact is that this is such a story because it IS unusual to have low quality food - this is why journos are all over this stuff in an instant. Half the 'food scares' are just complete lies - step forward daily mail. This ‘scandal’ is now being traced to an abattoir in Romania which doesn't surprise me....BUT the fact remains that unless you head out and shoot the thing yourself, you must trust the seller that it is what it says it is & that goes for a large shop or a local butcher, no guarantees either way.

I keep reading stuff about meat - there are strict rules for what is meat and how it is processed. People here are referring to MSM <shudder> not really my cup of tea - but legally a separate ingredient. I am a big proponent of reading the labels.

Could you tell the difference between a mix of horse mince/beef and 100% beef? That's not the point labelling should be clear -but this is still just fraud not a labelling error and it can happen to any ingredient. If fraud has taken place - it is not the fact that it is horse. As many people have pointed out you can happily eat horse. The fact is that we are probably going to find out that the criminal gang responsible aren't too keen on quality or hygiene and so the meat is unlikely to be fit for human consumption. Austerity challenges authenticity. If they get to the bottom of this I imagine it will highlight a long criminal chain.

Again the main gripe I have is that although we are banging on about harmonised legislation, there is no harmonised enforcement. We do need a renegotiation of the Lisbon treaty and if there is a two tier EU there needs to be strict criteria in place to be a part of it e.g. meeting corruption/enforcement targets (Bulgaria et al are just bleeding EU money into organised crime) and no free movement of labour which was a dumb aspiration in the first place. I really hope that Cameron's latest endeavour isn't just national positioning he has taken some learning from France and Greece (and Spain and Portugal) in the negotiating stakes i.e. get hat you want by threatening to bring the house down.

Also I am sorely disappointed that no ones has yet mentioned the UniQuorn in veggie burgers.

[mercutio]

i am no veggie so wouldnt have any experience of uniquorn, also my arguement is to buy your meat with care only going to local butchers/farmers preferably those with attached abbatoirs. What paul said is correct you get what you pay for and if your lazy in buying your food you will generally be lazy at everything else and as such will deserve what you get.

[bristol_bb4]

i am no veggie so wouldnt have any experience of uniquorn, also my arguement is to buy your meat with care only going to local butchers/farmers preferably those with attached abbatoirs. What paul said is correct you get what you pay for and if your lazy in buying your food you will generally be lazy at everything else and as such will deserve what you get.

Most if not all real butcher shops have a few attached abbatoirs, by real I mean butchers that buy in carcasses and bust+bone+roll joints, none of this boxed buy newzeland/Dutch/USA bollocks that's been vac packed for 3 months before it hits the shelf

[mercutio]

by attached i meant with the abbatoir at the back there is one close to me

[bristol_bb4]

Oh is it?? Theres none like that down here, bet their prices are good!

[mercutio]

and they know exactly where the animals have come from

[Dbo]

it is very rare for a butchers to have its own abbatoir, the shop my dad run in romsey was failing as the mat was shipped in as a whole uk order. it was when he took matters into his own hands and got meat from a local abbatoir in salisbury (15 miles away) that the trade turned around

we need more local REAL butchers that trade in local produce
on a local level the small shops are checked, all the time we had inspectors from weights and measures, they would take random samples to be tested for fat content and it was broken down in percentages of exactly what you sold it what you claimed it to be. you don't see these rules being put to the big retailers

[Donald]

Well I just went to the supermarket.

No beef, no pork, no lamb, no chickens, no ducks even. OH LAWD panic buy non-horsemeat while you can.

I have two turkey legs though. Maybe they're miniature horse legs.

[bristol_bb4]

Lol dont wanna put you off your tea but how old do you suppose those legs are

What big event happened not so long ago which may have accumulated some excess turkey?