OMG findus has 60-100% horsemeat in their lasagne!!

4x4 said:
Surely it's better too eat dead animals than waste them - all drugs are supposed to be on the passports.
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But they are not. The only time I have ever had my passport looked at by a vet was when I have taken them to Rossdales, or just to stamp the vaccinations page. Vets maybe supposed to note down all drugs on passports, and owners are supposed to sign the back saying that the horse must not enter the food chain, but this very rarely happens unless the horse gets referred to a major equine hospital.
 
I suspect this is the tip of the iceberg and there will be more horsemeat found in many other products.
The sorry fact is, that if you buy food that's got meat in it you don't know what meat has been used. The only way to know for sure is to make the food yourself and not buy ready meals or processed meat products.
 
four_corners said:
So whilst some horses in France are bred for meat (although most meat breeds are now becoming endangered), most of the animals will have been more cheaply sought from eastern europe, and possibly also the UK. Would you still eat the meat knowing it had travelled hundreds if not thousands of miles in poor conditions? I'm sure we've all seen the photos of that.
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I agree entirely. I don't have an issue with what animal is eaten. To me it is all about the animal's welfare whilst it is alive and we all know that horses in eastern europe are treated abominably and no doubt this is where most of this cheap meat comes from.

I've never eaten a crap meat sausage, burger, lasagne etc in my life but I have no problem with other people eating this kind of poor diet but we do need to know what we are eating and where it has come from.
 
tescoexpress said:
I would put money that some vegetarian ready meals have had horse meat in too. These criminals aren't going to care. I bet it's cheaper than Quorn or other such alternatives.
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I think this is highly, highly unlikely. Any vegetarian would be able to spot any kind of meat a mile off. You don't realise how distinctive the blood taste is underneath whatever the actual meat tastes like, until the taste of it is repulsive to you and completely dominates the flavour of any meat product. It's hard to explain, but long-term vegetarians who've accidentally eaten meat will know exactly what I mean! And how the texture is very distinctive, even when minced or processed.
 
philamena said:
I think this is highly, highly unlikely. Any vegetarian would be able to spot any kind of meat a mile off. You don't realise how distinctive the blood taste is underneath whatever the actual meat tastes like, until the taste of it is repulsive to you and completely dominates the flavour of any meat product. It's hard to explain, but long-term vegetarians who've accidentally eaten meat will know exactly what I mean! And how the texture is very distinctive, even when minced or processed.
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Totally, chicken tastes like tin foil to me now!! Can spot it a mile off. I always send someone in front of me at buffets to guide me and sometimes they think there is no meat and I inadvertently get the odd vol au vent with meat - couldn't disguise it. I don't eat many mince type veggie things and quorn or plasticine as I call it is nothing like the texture of beef mince - its like a sponge to absorb flavour. Maybe now there will be more effort made for vegetarian dishes in restaurants/cafes and more choice as more people turn to eating less meat :)
My main concern as non horsey people haven't really twigged is the bute in the meat and the countries the meat is coming from potentially tuberculosis in countries. This has shocked colleagues at work more than "oh there's horse in my food".
 
meesha said:
Maybe the UK market for horsemeat will increase with the knowledge that a. we have all been eating it more than likely for a long time and b. foot and mouth may be coming back and horses are one of the few livestock not to be affected !
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No we absolutely do NOT want horses deemed to be livestock in the event of foot and mouth. Last time, in case you have forgotten (!) horses were not allowed to move, compete etc etc and IF they had been deemed to have been livestock, then Defra would have legally been able to force horseowners to cull horses as carriers. There was a massive discussion at the time as Defra tried to change this discreetly but fortunately it came to light.

And they have found traces of bute in some of the horsemeat. Anyone else feel even more bitter about the complete waste of time that our passports our? they are not a legal document, they clearly do not prevent a horse entering the food chain and they most certainly do not prove ownership.
 
The bute issue and the trade description issues are very worrying but sadly not surprizing to me for processed foods.

Where are the horses for the Polish meat products from? They must be imported from around Europe in the first place. It seems a bit like money laundering just meat laundering.
 
Olliecp77 said:
I always send someone in front of me at buffets to guide me and sometimes they think there is no meat and I inadvertently get the odd vol au vent with meat - couldn't disguise it.
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I do the same! Or get people to bite things for me ha ha. Once I put a whole mini-tart full of fish roe in my chops thinking it was some kind of blackberry compote. Literally disgusting. Eeewwww!
 
I care enormously about what I eat. I have NEVER eaten lasagne that I did not make myself with beef from a butcher. Don't eat burgers or crsipy crepes either.

I do like to cook though so that makes a difference.
 
I always totally avoid burger vans - it amazes me that even at top quality events this is sometimes all the hot food on offer. I thought about buying a van and coming out with home made chilli and jacket potatoes and soups etc. but when you see how much the vans cost, then how much they charge for a pitch at these events, it is prohibitive and then you see why they have the cheap burgers in the first place, everyone needs to make living. It's no - win situation I'm afraid.
 
I think the saying "as sure as eggs are eggs" could even beheld to question these days..you technically can recognise egg - lets face it they should be pretty safe if in their shells still..but we simply just have to take on trust what the chickens were raised on/injected with during their life...think we'll all have to just eat chocolate forever more, honestly it would probably be better for you!
 
SaharaS said:
I think the saying "as sure as eggs are eggs" could even beheld to question these days..you technically can recognise egg - lets face it they should be pretty safe if in their shells still..but we simply just have to take on trust what the chickens were raised on/injected with during their life...think we'll all have to just eat chocolate forever more, honestly it would probably be better for you!
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It may be even worse than you suggest...

http://www.chinahush.com/2009/04/24/how-to-identify-fake-chicken-eggs/
 
Leviathan said:
I very much doubt that. That is a strong accusation to say.

I have had many vege meals and since they have been approved by the vege society I do not see how that is possible.
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Is it any stronger than putting horse meat in to beef products? Not at all.

Do the Vegetarian Society scrutinise every delivery in to every food factory which makes vegetarian food? Do they sample every batch of veg mince for animal protein or DNA? Of course they don't! Tesco ready meals were approved by their supply chain quality people, but it still happened. If this was criminal behaviour, they would have made sure that inspectors from government, retailer and independent ones were nowhere to be seen.
 
I was listening to Jeremy Vine earlier (difficult as always as his phone-in always attracts the nut-jobs) and one person said they were switching to only buying from their local butcher. That made me think as 100m from my local butcher is a "static" (unmoving member of the itinerant community) who breeds ponies and horses (that is to say he has loads and ties them up on grass verges and even the garden of a block of flats next door to the County Police HQ). I have speculated before as to why he has so many (there must be 20 or so at a time) and where they go to.
 
It is worth considering that the horsemeat found in these meals possibly hasn't even originated from the EU. Thousands of tons of horsemeat is imported from Mexico. Horses are transported thousands of miles across the US in appalling conditions, to meet an end in appalling conditions and could quite possibly now be in the readymeal in the freezer of a home in the UK. A large percentage are ex-racehorses, full of bute.
To those who are saying that they have no problem eating horsemeat, neither have I, so long as it's been treated in a humane way, but as we all know, even in the EU, this is not the case.
As for the supermarkets, they have for too long sourced the cheapest ingredients to gain the biggest profit margins. This could just be their final undoing, as more people are really wanting to know exactly where their food comes from. The highstreet butchers are seeing an increase in trade even without this latest scandal.
 
"I hope these horses are not the ones being bought cheap in the uk - shipped in horrible conditions only to be slaughtered and returned to us in boxes - they could at least of had the decency if this is the case to slaughter them here !!"

At Turners maybe?

Truth is, whatever your personal stance over eating horses, we are being told that there is no health risk.

I wouldn't trust what UK sourced horsemeat contained with the farsical passport system here so Gawd only knows whats in US/ Mexican or Eastern European sourced meat.
Even if the UK passport system was 100% infallible,, bute and the like on yards is shared and borrowed and I cant see owners rushing to log those one off doses on their passports.

Someone somewhere is making big bucks out of this at our expense. But the upshot hopefully is that our local farmers and butchers are going to see a resurgence...it could be the best thing thats happened for a long while and they should capitalise on this.
 
The suspicion is that the horses are coming from Argentina, poor sods.

I heard someone from Turners say that horse meat isn't even used in pet food in the UK as people would be too squeamish about it.

I eat very little meat, and none of it processed. I prefer to eat meat once a week and spend a decent amount of money on a decent piece of British beef which ain't cheap but neither should it be.

British farmers have to adhere to strict welfare standards while others don't. We demand cheap food, so we're importing crap.
 
What other checks for DNA are done on "meat"? Obviously, they've checked for horse, but how extensive are they, ie. some other species already mentioned - but how far do they go??
 
tescoexpress said:
Is it any stronger than putting horse meat in to beef products? Not at all.

Do the Vegetarian Society scrutinise every delivery in to every food factory which makes vegetarian food? Do they sample every batch of veg mince for animal protein or DNA? Of course they don't! Tesco ready meals were approved by their supply chain quality people, but it still happened. If this was criminal behaviour, they would have made sure that inspectors from government, retailer and independent ones were nowhere to be seen.
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A vegetarian can tell if they are eating real meat or not. I for one know what meat taste like. I was a meat eater for 16 years I can vouch for the meals I have had are 100% vege.


Sorry we will have to agree to disagree. I am sure if in heinsite your ridiculous comment were true it would be in the news specially now.
 
Personally I would not choose to eat horsemeat, I eat beef and pork but don't eat lamb. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite in the eyes of some but it is my personal choice, I don't object in anyway to horsemeat being produced, or even horses being bred to produce meat, I just don't want to eat it. I doubt I have been affected by this 'scandal', I certainly wouldn't have a health concern about the meat if I had been although the bute issue would certainly change that. My objection is to a meat that I wouldn't eat being labelled as a meat that I do eat and if I ate processed foods then I would be blurdy furious. I do wonder if the signing of the passport as 'not to enter the food chain' still applies when the horse gets to France, I doubt it!
 
Leviathan said:
A vegetarian can tell if they are eating real meat or not. I for one know what meat taste like. I was a meat eater for 16 years I can vouch for the meals I have had are 100% vege.


Sorry we will have to agree to disagree. I am sure if in heinsite your ridiculous comment were true it would be in the news specially now.
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My comments are not ridiculous and the word is hindsight. The food industry is adept at covering what is in these processed meals. If they had put small amounts of meat in a veg dish you would never know. If it takes a DNA test to establish this, I rather doubt that your taste buds are as sensitive, or maybe you should get a job with the FSA and they bin their laboratory testing!
 
tescoexpress said:
My comments are not ridiculous and the word is hindsight. The food industry is adept at covering what is in these processed meals. If they had put small amounts of meat in a veg dish you would never know. If it takes a DNA test to establish this, I rather doubt that your taste buds are as sensitive, or maybe you should get a job with the FSA and they bin their laboratory testing!
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I do not care how you spell it thank you.:rolleyes:

Ridiculous slandering comment saying the vegetarian society would not know what is in their foods.

It is not worth my while continuing this line of conversation. Unless you can info to back up that statement.
The vege society has been going a lot longer than you have been alive. I think enough vege's trust this society a lot more than they can trust your far fetched comments.


So do continue with your one man bandit crusade, just do not expect us to listen or believe anything you say .:rolleyes:

Well one things for sure I am sure glad I do not work for Tesco's anymore if your one of their staff, Wow its gone down hill since I left.
 
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