The horsemeat fiasco and why I don't like politicians

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redmone

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Hi everyone,

It's not like me to post a grumpy thread, but I couldn't believe it this morning when I heard someone on the BBC quote a politician as

"insisting that there is no evidence of a risk to health" connected to the recent discovery of horsemeat in things that....well...shouldn't have had horsemeat in!!

How can contamination not be a risk to human health?

How can me not knowing what is actually in my food (and them not knowing what I might be allergic to!!) not be a risk to my health?

Would someone who is already ready breaking the law, really be likely to be adhering to the strict food hygiene standands that they should be???

Don't get me wrong, I'm not all fluffy about this subject. I have no moral problem with anyone eating horse (providing, like all animals, it is treated humanely whilst alive, and then killed humanely) BUT I WANT TO KNOW WHAT IS IN MY FOOD!!!!

I'm not a big "ready meals" fan - but then again, I'm not a brilliant cook either.

I tend to favour ready made sauces and use them with fresh meat and rice/pasta. But I have had the occasional ready made pasta bolagnase type dish (because OH and daughter don't like that sort of thing and it's no fun cooking a meal for one!), or the occasional weight watchers ready meal when I'm trying to diet.

I did however pop into Sainsburys this morning for a tin of ravioli to put with a meal tonight....and put it back because, honestly, I REALLY doubt that's beef in there!!!

Another issue I have is when we discovered that some of the products had come from France and Romania, why could we not ban their imports until an investigation has taken place? Why does the EU have the powers to stop us from protecting our citizens? I'm sure France would have shut their doors to us pretty quickly had the shoe been on the other foot.

Again - no risk to human health - well....except they are mislabelling products and have been caught with serious contamination problems!

I know we now have investigations in this country too, but I do sometimes think that these policitians have a lot to answer for!

Sorry for the early morning rant. I REALLY did fancy ravioli with my tea, but have now gone right off it, and I decided it's David Cameron's fault! :o

:)
 
I agree 100%, if they don't even know what meat is in a product then how on earth can they say categorically that the product is safe?

As well as the possibility of drugs being in horsemeat I'd wonder if the meat was fit for human consumption in the first place, it would be much cheaper to use pet food standard meat.

I've never trusted politicians anyway.;)
 
Yes I agree. They cannot possible know if there is a health risk since they don't know where the blooming meat came from. And even if they did know where it originated from IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE BEEF!!!:mad:

Jeeze!:rolleyes:
 
touchstone said:
I agree 100%, if they don't even know what meat is in a product then how on earth can they say categorically that the product is safe?

As well as the possibility of drugs being in horsemeat I'd wonder if the meat was fit for human consumption in the first place, it would be much cheaper to use pet food standard meat.

I've never trusted politicians anyway.;)
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Me neither!!! And very good point about "fit for consumption".

I'm not one for scaremongering, but I was talking to my mum yesterday about the "glass in baby food" scare many years ago. Shelves were cleared and a mad panic ensued. Understandably so - as there was GLASS in BABYFOOD.

But similarly - we don't know what is in our food now.

I think I'm quite a laid back person in this respect, I don't think too much (probably even enough!) about what I eat - OH would tell stories of me having retrieved a piece of naan bread from the bin once (I had been drinking, and it was still good!) and we do have the "seven second" rule in our house! But if it's got me thinking, things must be bad! :eek:
 
FfionWinnie said:
Yes I agree. They cannot possible know if there is a health risk since they don't know where the blooming meat came from. And even if they did know where it originated from IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE BEEF!!!:mad:

Jeeze!:rolleyes:
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But it's FINE, it's FINE!! :cool:

Why? How come? :confused:

Because it's too expensive for us to find out that IT'S NOT BLOODY FINE!!!:mad:

I've got an idea. Lets sue France and Romania for trying to poison us.

Recession solved :D Redmone for PM! :D
 
Its a typical politicians answer, ie, technically true but deceptive none the less. "There is no evidence of a threat to human health" (ie, no one is actually known to have died from eating findus, yet). Once they have completed all the investigations and reviewed and pubished the results, no doubt there will be evidence.
 
This is exactly the rant I had to my other half this morning! How can they possibly KNOW there is no threat to human health if they don't know where the meat is coming from and don't know what drugs are in there!
 
I agree woth you - luckily I'm vegetarian but OH isn't have banned ready meals from our kitchen, all our feed will be made from scratch now so we know what's in it!
Having seen the horrific pics of live transport etc I can't see how anyone would be happy to eat horse, isn't that what WHW has been campaigning for the last 20 odd years?? Bit ironic in that it now looks like we have possibly been eating this very meat if it turns out it isn't from the UK.
 
SuseP said:
Its a typical politicians answer, ie, technically true but deceptive none the less. "There is no evidence of a threat to human health" (ie, no one is actually known to have died from eating findus, yet). Once they have completed all the investigations and reviewed and pubished the results, no doubt there will be evidence.
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They said the same thing when the BSE crisis kicked off. Look what happened there.
 
While I'm not opposed to eating horse meat (meat is meat after all, and I am an omnivore), the issue is that:

a) the beef was "contaminated" with an unknown meat source
b) if the manufacturers of the meals don't know what is in their meat, how can they categorically state it is fit for human consumption
c) also, if they don't know where the horse meat comes from, is it likely to be farmed horse meat, or an old/sick horse etc

Just to note that all the horse meat I've seen for sale in my local (French) supermarkets actually comes from south America (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay). The horse and foal meat we get at work (Switzerland) usually comes from Hungary.

As a further note, phenylbutazone is a licensed and marketed pain killer for humans too. Yes there are newer and safer painkillers out there, but it isn't the cancer-causing killer of humans as touted by the press (though I still wouldn't want to eat any meat containing it - but who knows what we are eating with all of the "approved" drugs cows can be treated with...?)
 
Actually, there's more evidence its likely to be a health risk than otherwise. Humans taking bute as a painkiller themselves is known to be harmful, & in some cases fatal. But, its not unheard of for people to take it, certainly going back a few years, & plenty, including myself aren't any the worse for it. However, that doesn't mean its not a health risk, so I fail to see why its not one if the meat contains it. Admittedly its a much lower dose, but with any drug it can have different consequences on different people. I know people who've taken vast quantities of grade a drugs without long term effect, yet there are cases where people have died from a relatively small dose. And afaik there hasn't been enough research into the consequences of humans taking bute, even as a secondary source, to say its not a health risk.
 
YOU JUST HAVE TO LAUGH ABOUT IT ALL>>


I went to a Tesco café yesterday and ordered a burger. They asked me if I wanted anything on it, and I said: ‘Yes — a fiver each way.’

Does anyone have a tooth pick? I had a Tesco burger last night and there’s still a bit between my teeth.

My daughter has always wanted a pony, so I’m buying her a Tesco Quarter Pounder for her birthday.

I’ve got some Tesco burgers in the fridge. But . . . THEY’RE OFFFFFFFFF!

My doctor told me to watch what I eat, so I went out and bought tickets for the Grand National.

If you think horse meat’s bad, wait until you try Tesco’s veggie burgers. They’re made of genuine uniQuorn.

Scientist: ‘Sir, we’ve discovered horse meat in your burgers.’
Tesco boss: ‘Why the long face?’

I won’t eat Tesco burgers. They may be low in fat, but they have a very high Shergar content.

Tesco are giving treble points on your Clubcard for all burgers and petrol, starting today. The deal’s called Only Fuel and Horses.

What do you call a burnt Tesco burger? Black Beauty.

A motorist gets pulled over by a police officer, who asks him to blow into a breathalyser. The machine beeps.
‘I’m sorry Sir,’ says the officer. ‘You’re over the limit. Can you tell me what you have had tonight?’
‘Nothing Officer,’ replies the man. ‘Just a burger from Tesco.’
‘That explains it,’ says the policeman. ‘I knew I could smell Red Rum.’

They’ve found horse meat in Tesco burgers? It’s an unbridled disaster.

A Tesco burger walks into a bar. ‘A pint please.’
‘I can’t hear you,’ says the barman.
‘Sorry’ replies the burger. ‘I’m a little bit horse.’

I selected some burgers on the Tesco website. And then clicked ‘Add to cart.’

Those Tesco horse burgers were nice, but I prefer My Lidl Pony.

A woman has been taken to hospital after eating Tesco burgers. Her condition is said to be stable.

I used to work on the Tesco meat counter, but it was like flogging a dead horse.

Last night I ate a Tesco burger, an Iceland burger and an Aldi burger to find out which had the best taste.
Tesco won by a short head.

I think someone may be sending me death threats. I woke up this morning with a Tesco burger in my bed.

Have you heard? Now traces of zebra have been found in Tesco barcodes.

I bought an ‘award-winning’ Tesco burger. I didn’t realise they meant it had won the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

I used to work for Tesco, but I was fired. I got an email about a delivery of horse meat and I marked it as spam.

Horse meat in Tesco burgers? What are the odds on that?

I tried to take some burgers back to Tesco but they said they wouldn’t accept them. Looks like I’m saddled with them.

Husband: ‘I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.’
Wife: ‘Why don’t you go to Tesco?’

Personally, I think people who don’t like eating horse meat are being a bit blinkered.

Despite the recent news, Tesco says that their beef burger sales remain stable.

Are you in favour of horse meat in your burgers? Yay or Neigh?

I won’t be switching to Tesco Finest burgers. They’re so expensive that buying enough for a big family dinner won’t leave you much change from a pony.

I was going to give up fast food for January, but I fell at the final hurdle and had a Tesco burger.

Just been to Tesco and bought a bottle of Bacardi, a bottle of Lamb’s and some burgers. So that’s white rum, navy rum and Red Rum.

Unused HMV vouchers are now being accepted at Tesco. Just tell them HMV means ‘Horse Meat Voucher’.

Despite the recent scandal, Tesco insist they use only meat of the highest quality. A spokesman said: ‘Our meat has to clear several hurdles before it goes on sale.’
And the most groan-inducing . . .
What’s in this burger? It just jumped over my chips.
I don’t know why there’s a fuss all of a sudden. There’s been horse meat in Tesco burgers for donkey’s years.

I like my burgers with a side saddle and neighonnaise.

I hope Tesco were selling those burgers at hoof price.

So there’s horse meat in Tesco’s burgers. Don’t worry, it’s not the mane ingredient.

Forget the Everyday Value burgers — I only eat those mini-burgers you have as snacks. You know, the horse d’oeuvres.

I bought some Tesco burgers — I wanted to get venison ones, but they were dead dear.

I ordered a Tesco burger the other day — but asked them to hold the dressage.

Tesco would’ve got away with it if it wasn’t for the DN Neigh test.
 
Stateside - those are all AWESOME!!! (I would quote you, but it'd be a massive quote!)

One thing I have noticed is the whole saga has really separated out those with a sense of humour, and those without!

Most people are agreed, that we just want to know what is in our food, and know that we can trust it to be safe.

ps just had homemade (by my mum!) shepherds pie for lunch.....how much do I trust her....haven't seen dad for while.....;)
 
The key issue for me personally it whether it's fit for human consumption - yes there is bute but what about other drugs steroids, wormers even - have all the relevant withdrawal periods been adheared to. Have all the cleanliness rules been complied with?

How do I know this isn't a horse that's being laying dead on a romanian road for 2 weeks before being scraped up, minced and shoved in my food.

If they didn't know what species it was - they CAN'T know whether it's fit for human consumption.
 
Polos Mum said:
The key issue for me personally it whether it's fit for human consumption - yes there is bute but what about other drugs steroids, wormers even - have all the relevant withdrawal periods been adheared to. Have all the cleanliness rules been complied with?

How do I know this isn't a horse that's being laying dead on a romanian road for 2 weeks before being scraped up, minced and shoved in my food.

If they didn't know what species it was - they CAN'T know whether it's fit for human consumption.
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Polos Mum - I couldn't agree with you more!

I love it how now we're going from "definately safe", to "unlikely to be dangerous"....in such a quiet swift movement!

I particularly liked this bit of the article...

"FSA chief executive accused some vets and horse owners of not ensuring horse passports are kept up-to-date, leading to bute-treated horses ending up in the food chain.

She said: "If both these people have done the right thing, horses with bute in don't make their way into the food chain. Someone has always broken the rules."

So you see, problem solved. It was our fault all along!

Silly me :rolleyes:
 
Im a natrually sceptical person but I now wonder what else there could be in 'meat' I guess at this stage they are only testing for horse but what about testing for 1) donkey 2) rat/ squirrel/ any other rodent that happens to wonder along and be cheap 3) meat fit for pet food only being 'mis labelled' etc etc.

That lovely Africa series that's been on recently commented in the last episode that lots of the wildlife over there ends up sold as 'beef' to tourists and locals - so do we need to start checking what zoo's are doing with dead elephants !!!

Turns out you can't trust anyone trying to make a fast buck!
 
Polos Mum said:
Im a natrually sceptical person but I now wonder what else there could be in 'meat' I guess at this stage they are only testing for horse but what about testing for 1) donkey 2) rat/ squirrel/ any other rodent that happens to wonder along and be cheap 3) meat fit for pet food only being 'mis labelled' etc etc.

That lovely Africa series that's been on recently commented in the last episode that lots of the wildlife over there ends up sold as 'beef' to tourists and locals - so do we need to start checking what zoo's are doing with dead elephants !!!

Turns out you can't trust anyone trying to make a fast buck!
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I'd check for "people" too......:cool:
 
On a tangent... did anyone see the DM cartoon... :p

13022013.jpg

…So I said ‘If you can smuggle horse into the UK, you can smuggle us in.’….’Okay.’ he said, ‘ Twenty smackers.”
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redmone said:
I love it how now we're going from "definately safe", to "unlikely to be dangerous"....in such a quiet swift movement!
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I wonder how much longer before that moves again to "oh ***** we're all going to die.."

I have to say though, I did wonder why my sciatica felt so much better after a lasagne - must have been the bute kicking in..
 
Overall I think this lot are going to duck and dive and always blame someone else ie the Vets for not recording and the whole passport system which when it was introduced I know most of us agree "we told you so..." WE ALL KNEW IT WAS POINTLESS AND USELESS

Contaminated it is not it is HORSE end of.

They will try to worm their way out of it.

Good old Hugh Fearnley was on radio to day and he spoke a lot of sense over our food. Brilliant to listen to him.

As for BUTE the horse owners who gave bute will totally get the blame. Not the dealers, traders who find the horse meat industry so unregulated etc unlike the beef industry.

Now I am ranting too. I am sick of Politicians thinking we dont know what they are up to......they are all the same.
 
I bet if you put a ready-made lasagne in front of a Politician and asked them to eat it - they would refuse!

I went shopping tonight and started questioning whether or not it was real beef on the shelves - in the end I got some quorn for a stirfry.

The local farm shop had a huge queue this weekend with people buying their meat - as they could actually see it was "proper" meat!
 
I love this thread!

I was in Waitrose today looking for something to cook for OH, and instinctively headed for steak fridge. The amount of horse jokes I heard in the space of 5mins was just hilair.

Funny that the lamb, chicken, pork shelves were pretty empty but the beef shelf was well stocked...

Such a shame as there was some good meat there.
 
LittleBlackMule said:
I wonder how much longer before that moves again to "oh ***** we're all going to die.."

I have to say though, I did wonder why my sciatica felt so much better after a lasagne - must have been the bute kicking in..
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Now have you uncovered a conspiracy here?

In order to relieve the creaking NHS, perhaps the government is feeding us bute in small quantities to ease our aches and pains, and save valuable NHS resources!!!

oooooo if only I believed they could think that deeply....:rolleyes:
 
Hexx said:
I bet if you put a ready-made lasagne in front of a Politician and asked them to eat it - they would refuse!

I went shopping tonight and started questioning whether or not it was real beef on the shelves - in the end I got some quorn for a stirfry.

The local farm shop had a huge queue this weekend with people buying their meat - as they could actually see it was "proper" meat!
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Funny you should say that....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...turns-Findus-beef-bolognese-bad-politics.html

:cool:
 
tallyho! said:
I love this thread!

I was in Waitrose today looking for something to cook for OH, and instinctively headed for steak fridge. The amount of horse jokes I heard in the space of 5mins was just hilair.

Funny that the lamb, chicken, pork shelves were pretty empty but the beef shelf was well stocked...

Such a shame as there was some good meat there.
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Hi Tallyho!!!

I'm loving the horse jokes! As I said on another page, I think it's really separated those with a sense of humour and those without! Just think of how this has raised the profile of equestrianism on the back of the great pulicity following the Olympics!

We have taught the general public that not only can horses win gold medals, but that they are yummy too! :cool:

I'd be looking out for the price of those steaks reducing, and then I'd be buying them!!! I'm a little off ready meals right now, but a nice cut of steak I couldn't resist!!!!

:D
 
I wonder if local butchers have had an increase in trade? That would be a good consequence I suppose :)

I wouldn't be quite so quick to blame the Romanians aren't they investigating the Irish, Welsh and some places on our doorstep too. Much easier to blame countries that already eat horse and may want to migrate here soon :rolleyes:
 
Cloball said:
I wonder if local butchers have had an increase in trade? That would be a good consequence I suppose :)

I wouldn't be quite so quick to blame the Romanians aren't they investigating the Irish, Welsh and some places on our doorstep too. Much easier to blame countries that already eat horse and may want to migrate here soon :rolleyes:
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I'm hoping butchers trade has improved too! Every cloud....!!!

As I said in my original post "I know we now have investigations in this country too, but I do sometimes think that these policitians have a lot to answer for!" - Tormorden (which isn't a million miles away from where I live!) as well as Ireland and Wales now!

I blame politicians!! They should have strong enough management and regulatory procedures of firstly our overseas imports, and secondly of our food chain in this country.

As I've said, I don't really mind whether they find horse meat or rat meat in my food, I mind that it's contaminated!!! :)
 
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