GEE-UP on the menu

[Shallot Man]

I see in today's papers that horse meat has found it's way into Beefburgers. Maybe if the supermarkets weren't so keen in screwing the supplier to the floor this wouldn't happen. Having eaten Gee-Up some years ago on the Continent and enjoyed it. Why is it not allowed for human consumption in this Country. We seem quite happy to export live horses to be slaughtered at a later date.

[Beryl]

I've never eaten Horse meat so I couldn't comment on that but I thought the problem was because it was labelled as beef. I maybe wrong.

Beryl.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I've eaten horse meat once and it was very much like beef. I think this was found in Irish "beef" burgers in Tesco's economy range. The chap talking about it said that they have several separate abbotoirs for dealing with horses in Ireland and the meat is exported to countries that like horse meat, but it appears that somewhere along the line Tesco's have received some horse meat along with their beef to make these beefburgers. I suppose they could call them nag burgers.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Beryl, that is indeed the issue. But how they can say there are absolutely no health implications, i'm not sure. If they say they didn't put it in there knowingly, or how it got in there, how do they know that it was fit for human consumpstion in the first place. They can't have it both ways....

[Westi]

They found a bit of DNA - this kind of says to me they didn't clean out the grinders properly - health issue I'd say! Stale meat stuck in the grinders - for how long??

Westi

[robo]

makes me wonder what we are eating if the producers don't know whats going into there product what chance have we got

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Westi, some of the ones that were tested at Tesco's were registering 27 percent horse meat.

[peter]

Mmmmm.

[vegpatchmum]

Lol - saw that on my Hubbys virtual Landy World forum and another forum member from there reckoned that he'd heard that Tesco meatballs were the dogs b*****ks

Seriously though, my sister is allergic to pork so the fact that pork had found its' way into '100% beef' burgers is quite frightening really

This whole debacle makes you begin to wonder what other standards have started to fall in the pursuit of yet even greater profit margins.

VPM
x

[Westi]

OH - if 27% was in it then it was intentional! I watched a bit on the news interviewing people in the street - most were willing to give horse a go - BUT - only if they were aware of it & tried it by choice! Next big food fad

Generated some good jokes though!

Westi

[Primrose]

We never buy any commercially processed meat (apart from an occasional tin of corned beef to make corn beef hash) but it certainly makes you wonder what you're eating. We prefer to buy our meat unprocessed straight from the butcher's shop. Our local butcher was doing a roaring trade in his "home made" beefburgers yesterday where people trust what he's putting in them.

[alan refail]

Hamburgers is an anagram of Shergar bum.

[Geoff]

Just heard somebody from the Food Standard Agency on the radio who sounded very complacent to me. Said there was no danger as horse meat is safe to eat. Surely that is not the point. The traceability system has broken down, probably criminally. In this case it hasn't introduced a hazard but you have to think the fraud could just as easily have been used to introduce sub-standard beef as it has been for horse meat.

[glallotments]

The whole point is that we should know what we are eating and labelling should be correct. As was said earlier there could be implications if someone was allergic to an ingredient or couldn't eat pork for religious reasons.

We once were eating in a French hotel where the menu was in dual languages. French burger cheval - English translation beefburgers! I wonder how many were caught out with that?

[alan refail]

It's very much a case of "you get what you pay for". To quote a Guardian journalist: "The only surprise about the latest adulteration scandal, in which beefburgers at rock bottom prices turn out to contain horsemeat and traces of pig, is perhaps that they contain meat at all."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21059425