General Chat

I used to work for Drive for a pack house that supplied 3 major supermarkets and a farmer who supplied several packer/processors who supplied major supermarkets and believe me If your load did not have the correct paperwork they would not even look at your load,

The people who have contaminated these products are criminals plain and simple, Would you really eat food offered to you down the pub from a man you've never met?

criminals sell drugs and the end user doesn't have a clue what else has been added to the substance being sold to them

This is no different

Roy

Yes Roy - there are stringent rules in place based on HACCP which apply to meat products as well as others.

Susan I do eat and have eaten just about anything really. Passing horse off as beef was purely economic - a burger made from horse is cheaper than a burger made from beef,
As far as heads of countries having it on their menus is concerned - many probably already do. We are virtually the only nation that does not regularly eat horse. Personally I quite like it

Me too, I used to have it as a child and remember it was tasty,

Not had it as an adult but doesn't bother me, Ive eaten most animals over the years on my travels.

Roy

I don't really understand your logic PP. Are you saying that because 'you' don't mind, then neither should anyone else? Or maybe that because you or 'others' don't mind then you can't understand why any anyone else shouldn't?......Me, I can understand why others may like horsemeat, but I don't and don't expect to be deceived into buying it.

I really don't think the economics of the situation should have anything to do with deceit.

"Passing horse off as beef was purely economic"

Bull!! Passing horse off as beef was deceitful pure and simple.

Plus the fact that we have no idea where this horse meat was sourced from and what it contains. Knowing that there is horse meat in something and choosing to buy it is one thing. Being lied to about the contents of the products is another.

Susan101, I'm saying that where the product comes from is very important and if Horse was introduced into the food chain for human consumption in the UK then i would be happy to eat that product,

you can buy horse in the UK for human consumption but you have to go to specialist suppliers

But the contaminated Beef with horse meat has not gone through the correct checks or channels so their is a risk, that risk being you simply don't no if what your eating is safe as i said before the contaminated products were as a result of a criminal element in the food industry,

To summarise, I will ear meat from any animal but would not buy or eat anything thats come via a criminal source, Thats my choice

What anyone else will or will not do or eat is entirely up to them

Roy

Errol, your comment:

'Passing horse off as beef was purely economic - a burger made from horse is cheaper than a burger made from beef'

Horse meat isn't/shouldn't be cheaper than beef.
To raise a horse for consumption is a lot more expensive than beef - hence concerns about where this 'cheap' horsemeat came from.

That's true Maggie but....in order for beef to be accepted at the abattoir it has to walk in and be passed by the examining human food consumption bodies. When we had the farm, a few times a call for help would go out for hubby to help get a cow back on it's feet. On it's feet and it's worth money, off it's feet and subsequently destroyed it's worth nothing.

Exactly the same principle would apply to horsemeat. We know horse has entered the human food chain by deception. Therefore nobody can know what condition that horse was in when it was processed. Dead before arrival at the abattoir, diseased, open wounds. Doesn't bear thinking about.

This is what should be fed to the poor? How insulting!

and who are the poor these days?

Horse meat certainly is cheaper than beef.
Beef prices have rocketed recently due, in part, to the fact that huge numbers of cattle were slaughtered in the UK four or five years ago because the price of grain had increased so much. Farmers simply could not afford to raise beef cattle.
Since 2006 the price of beef has virtually doubled and is now fetching up to £3.80 a kilo.
Horse meat, on the other hand, sells globally for about £1.85 a kilo.

And according to food safety experts, if you look at value burgers (which is what much of this debacle is concerned about) horse meat would be about a quarter of the price of beef.