I love horseBest of all the animals, they're my friends.
Surely the pig contamination is a more serious issue than the horse?
I've eaten horse: it's nommy. However since these burgers were meant to contain cow and not horse, then there's no guarantee that this horse was suitable for human consumption, which is more of a concern.If, as seems likely, the slaughterhouses are just processing any old animal for burger meat, then were the cows fit for human consumption? As Julian says, if you search for the cheapest meat, it's not going to be good stuff.
Horse meat is actually better for you than beef - the nature of the horse's digestive system means the fat in the meat is polyunsaturated.
I had a donkey sausage last time in France, so no, horsemeat wouldn't bother me. But I don't tend to buy that sort of burger just because they are usually not all that nice.
I had a donkey sausage last time in France,
My Lidl Pony. ;)
IF Tesco and all the others have proper traceability programmes in their supply chain, it should be possible to identify the source of the meat that was processed into burgers.
All the cow meat should be from EU registered abbatoirs which have Defra meat inspectors in attendance 99% of the time that killing takes place. Veterinary inspectors should also be present some of the time, to ensure all animals are fit for human consumption.
The presence of horse DNA is not proof of horse meat being used, but one sample indicated a very high content of horse DNA so it looks likely.
It could be fat, bone meal, meat extracts as well as meat.
Burgers destined for supermarkets are produced on an industrial scale.
As someone associated with farming and who can also remember the last burger disaster that bears my name ,I am very angry that someone thought it was a good idea to include horse meat or horse meat by- products into these burgers.
The FSA may be correct in saying there is no risk to health, but the damage that these companies have done to the food production industry will take a long time to repair.
There is no doubt that all the supermarkets are aiming to keep costs of production down and profits up.
In an ideal world ,everyone of these supermarkets would be prosecuted for selling burgers that are not conforming to their stated ingredients. But they won't be , and we will get the usual lessons have been learned, it won't happen again.
And poor people will carry on buying shit burgers from supermarkets because they don't know or can't afford any better.
How do you fit a donkey sausage in the bun?
I went to a sale recently and yearling mountain ponies were selling for less than the burgers!
I've eaten horse: it's nommy. However since these burgers were meant to contain cow and not horse, then there's no guarantee that this horse was suitable for human consumption, which is more of a concern.+1.
Meat is red rum;D
I thought all race horses had their passports signed as "not for human consumption" so that they could be medicated for what ever reason,
Tesco's veggie burgers are currently being tested for uniquorn.
Tesco's veggie burgers are currently being tested for uniquorn.
You think their budget fish-fingers may have traces of Sea Horses in them?
Will eating a dead horse give you the trots?
Well spotted, Paul! I must rein in my mistakes, get the bit between my teeth and be spurred on to better comments.
They didn't say they found meat. They said they found animal DNA. #pedant
So it’s just powdered horse? Well where can I get some of these quality burgers!Any city centre street, no beef! Probably not UCI approved. (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=horse)
Reminds me of Ben Elton in standup mode, telling the story of Colonel Sanders using every bit of chicken in the KFC menu.In a certain part of Hungary, Chicken bollocks are the local delicacy ....
"Go on son ( as lad is sweeping the entrails off the floor) , chuck 'em in the fryer"
"But no-one will want to eat them, sir"
"Yes they will. chicken m'cbollocks- you know you want to."
well I suppose BSE isn't a risk ;)
yeah got my figures slightly wrong, USDA estimate 90,000 horses exported to Canada & Mexico for slaughter each year, not sure of the percentage but the 3 EU countries above are still the biggest importers
I suppose I do still find it funny, but maybe minced meat will be crossed off my shopping list for a while :)
I wonder how long before this spreads to high-street retailers of burgers and lasagne such as McBurgerWimpey and all the chain Italian restaurants?
I hope this means more people will use good quality local butchers instead of supermarkets. At the butchers you can watch them mince the meat in front of you.
Good point about the tracking of meat, but the wider issue is that we are foolish to place any credence in the food industry about anything.
I was spitting teeth at Peter Kendall's (president of NFU) contribution on the World at One: you'd have thought he was representing the food-processing industry, not primary producers >:(
I hope this means more people will use good quality local butchers instead of supermarkets. At the butchers you can watch them mince the meat in front of you.My grandmother used to buy butcher's scraps & mince them herself - or get me to do it. She had a child-powered metal mincer that clamped onto the edge of the table, with different internal bits for different grades of mince. It was common household kit back then.
I hope this means more people will use good quality local butchers instead of supermarkets. At the butchers you can watch them mince the meat in front of you.My grandmother used to buy butcher's scraps & mince them herself - or get me to do it. She had a child-powered metal mincer that clamped onto the edge of the table, with different internal bits for different grades of mince. It was common household kit back then.
Probably.
It looked like this -
(http://www.camillasring.co.uk/SPONG%20MINCER.jpg)
- but without the rust.
I've just learned that the French supplier involved in the entire sordid business is called Spanghero. I find this strangely pleasing, and wonder whether Frying Pans are involved ;D
(http://img.tesco.com/Groceries/pi/606%5C5000157071606%5CIDShot_225x225.jpg)
;D
Probably.Inlaws have one like that (without rust and probably a bit newer) used mainly for non-meat mincing though.
It looked like this -
(http://www.camillasring.co.uk/SPONG%20MINCER.jpg)
- but without the rust.
if they're not looking for something they won't find it
if they're not looking for something they won't find it
Exactly this.
I expect I'm not alone in thinking that government scientists were beavering away testing everything on the Supermarket shelves for traces of bad stuff or wrong stuff.
It turns out that it's based on trust. So presumably we're expected to sleep soundly knowing that our food safety is based on a Purchaser in Tescos asking some Romanian slaughterhouse "it's definitely made from mashed-up Cows is it? Cross your heart and hope to die? "
Ferchristssake, Findus BEEF Lasagne was 100% NOT BEEF. We're not talking about finding traces of Horse DNA in Tesco Burgers here, we're talking about not being able to find and f***ing traces of Beef DNA in the Beef.
The horses inside Findus Beef Lasagne had probably never seen a Cow. Nobody in Findus had ever traced the main ingredient of their product back to source.
Does anyone actually feel comfortable with this trust thing anymore? Everyone OK trusting their health to large corporations?
Hopefully this will mean lots of our food gets tested...god only knows what they will find.
For the people who bought "beef" - you wanted cheap tasty meat protein, that's what you got.
People who bought "Beef" presumably wanted Beef.
Thing is, it's not that cheap. I don't know what a Findus ready meal lasagna costs (because they're out of stock!) but I've just looked online and a Tesco Beef Lasagne is £2.40, which is £5.34 / kg. Well, you can get mince for £3.50ish / kg, pasta sheets and chopped tomatoes are pennies - it works out cheaper to make your own by quite a lot.
I assume as a branded name, Findus would be more expensive than the Tesco ready meals too.
Thing is, it's not that cheap. I don't know what a Findus ready meal lasagna costs (because they're out of stock!) but I've just looked online and a Tesco Beef Lasagne is £2.40, which is £5.34 / kg. Well, you can get mince for £3.50ish / kg, pasta sheets and chopped tomatoes are pennies - it works out cheaper to make your own by quite a lot.
I assume as a branded name, Findus would be more expensive than the Tesco ready meals too.
BBC reported: You'd need to eat 500-600 burgers to get one dose of bute, if bute was present in the meat. I don't know if that's a horse dose or a human dose!
For the people who bought "beef" - you wanted cheap tasty meat protein, that's what you got.
So if you bought a cheap bike in a box and you got a skateboard you'd be OK?
It's clearly an issue if you can't trust food labelling.
It's clearly a potential health issue if you can't trust food labelling.
You're basically saying it's OK to give poor people any old shit, they won't mind.
People who bought "Beef" presumably wanted Beef.
Having pork DNA in beef products may be an issue for soem religious groups, but how much pork does "DNA" represent. That may just be insufficient/inefficient housekeeping).
Horsemeat is 1/5 of the cost of beef. It's fraud pure and simple.If food processors can put horse into their products, they can put other uncertified stuff in, for instance cows - but with bovine TB or BSE or whatever. And unless they are sufficiently compensated for not doing so - which might be the case in UK but certainly not everywhere - some will. In fact you might say it would be bad business practice not to!
And they have found bute in horse carcasses, so it has entered the human food chain. It also as others have carefully explained undermines any concept of traceability in the system.
So all "vegetarian" food, unless hand-picked by by people adhering to strict Jainist principles (it is Jains who sometimes sweep the floor in front of them to avoid squishing bugs isn't it?), will contain traces of animal DNA and protein. Is that a scandal? ???I sometimes wonder how many insects they squash inadvertently with their brushes.
Kathy raises an interesting question about how DNA work is reported in the media. Not all "traces" need be "significant". Though with this particular story we're not talking only traces.
The problem with microbiological techniques that can pick up even traces of DNA is where do you stop? When I worked in agriculture, the tractor drivers used to have a joke. It went "How do you know when you've run over a rabbit with a combine harvester?" and the answer was "There's a loud BANG and the grain turns briefly red." They reckoned that they would average one rabbit per field, and would also get numerous small creatures (field mice, voles, etc) which were too small to be noticed. And that's not even considering all the insects, worms, spiders...
So all "vegetarian" food, unless hand-picked by by people adhering to strict Jainist principles (it is Jains who sometimes sweep the floor in front of them to avoid squishing bugs isn't it?), will contain traces of animal DNA and protein. Is that a scandal? ???
An estimated quantity of 0.8 milligrams of titanium is ingested by humans each day, but most passes through without being absorbed.
Until you put your foot in it. From wikipedia:Your titanium frame is made of cave man poo. Zoinks!QuoteAn estimated quantity of 0.8 milligrams of titanium is ingested by humans each day, but most passes through without being absorbed.
:D
Until you put your foot in it. From wikipedia:QuoteAn estimated quantity of 0.8 milligrams of titanium is ingested by humans each day, but most passes through without being absorbed.
:D
Nobody has yet asked the important questions here: Do these dodgy horse burgers contain any clenbuterol and if so, can I still get some?