Horsemeat in burgers.

[Kanaric]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddr...ster-says.html

Is it just me or is it whenever I see something like this I just shrug it off as so? I don't care if i'm eating horse meat. Is it good? Yes. So...... shouldn't that be the end of the discussion? It's not like it's a disgusting part of an animal that is poisonous to eat. It's horse meat.



I'm sure someone in Poland though is saying KURWA.

[Moorish guy]

All gods creatures,fresh of the grill.

[removeduser_4536284751384]

If you're buying burgers that are so low quality they don't even have "beef" or "chicken" in front of the word burger, and come frozen, what more do you expect?

[Keyser]

Horsemeat is tasty. That's not the problem though, the problem is that there is horsemeat in a product that shouldn't include it and that's very different. Because it was horse this time, but that could be anything...

[removeduser_4536284751384]

Horsemeat is tasty. That's not the problem though, the problem is that there is horsemeat in a product that shouldn't include it and that's very different. Because it was horse this time, but that could be anything...

Horse shouldn't be found in a beef burger, or chicken burger. But it's perfectly acceptable to put it in just a "burger", which is cast offs from various industries and mostly not meat anyway.

[Logios]

This is already being discussed in the EMM section.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=584925
I find horsemeat to be tasty indeed, too bad it is so hard to come by these days.

[Father Jack]

I think the press initially raged about it, and then realised most people probably don't care if they eat horse, they just wouldn't expect to find it in a burger alongside pork. Just don't buy cheap burgers or cheap meat products in future.

[conon394]

This came up elsewhere.

There are couple problems - if I want Ground beef not just lean ground red meat - than it is fraud. Second if a slaughter facility cannot keep Horse and Beef separate how about Pork and Beef or Beef and Lamb and those distinctions mean a lot to a lot pf people.Third if they cannot keep the products separate how well run and sanitary is the producer facility?

But the basic question is not price - but end product if it ground beef cheap or not it should be beef.

But it's perfectly acceptable to put it in just a "burger", which is cast offs from various industries and mostly not meat anyway.

Really? What makes you sat that?

[Ak1980]

That's remind me on this article, not serious source, but quite funny and straight to the point. Bread from wood, honey without any trace of honey, meat glue, dyed salmon, at least the burger still consist of real meat not gelatin or something else
http://www.cracked.com/article_19896...eding-you.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_19433...eding-you.html

[conon394]

That's remind me on this article, not serious source, but quite funny and straight to the point. Bread from wood, honey without any trace of honey, meat glue, dyed salmon, at least the burger still consist of real meat not gelatin or something else
http://www.cracked.com/article_19896...eding-you.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_19433...eding-you.html

Cracked as always is reasonably reliably funny, but I do take issue witht the Ammonia thing and the recent hysteria about pink slime.

People want cheap and reliably safe food - and the that is what the Government, Industry and Academia have worked more or less decades and there is a down side. What do like better trichina or confined pigs or only having meat once a week?. You want cheap, safe ground beef or do really trust the local butcher is cleaning out his grinder and not adding a little rat meat on the side - maybe but than again maybe not? You want fruit all year or only in season? You really can't have it all - something has got to give unless you are uber wealthy or you want all the old health risks back and nice diet of grain mostly, a lot more organ meat and a lot less food security more apple sauce and less pretty apples etc - and of course a whole lot more time and effort and money spent on buying or producing food.

[chamaeleo]

Conventional beef is mostly corn-fed, which is extremely unnatural. Horses eat grass and grain: far more nutritious. Aside from fraudulent sales practices and cross contamination issues, the only downside I can see is the horse you're eating is probably older. Consequently, you'd expect a greater bioaccumulation of toxins over the animal's lifetime. Cattle are slaughtered a lot earlier.

At least the horse might've had a few good years at pasture, before tough times convince the owners to sell. Here in NM there's a steady stream of stories, of emaciated horses found abandoned in the desert...so we might as well save them from a slow death by exposure. I'd rather we eat them than the vultures and coyote.

[Raubritter]

My Grandpa ate horsemeat during the war, long time he remembered contentedly back about the taste. After the war, he brought his children one time with him to the horse butcher and bought everyone a sausage of horsemeat. After a few bits he throwed them away and said, it tasted better during the war.

I'am okay with the taste and see no problem eating any animal. Hell, in Switzerland you can still eat dogs and cats. The only problem i see here is fraudulent labeling.

[Father Jack]

Conventional beef is mostly corn-fed, which is extremely unnatural.
.

Ahh but British and Irish beef is fed predominantly on grass in the fields all year round, which leads to a better quality and flavour. One of the perks of our damp yet not too cold climate.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17925152

[mongrel]

Ironically, I think if someone tried to market genuine horse-meat burgers, people might be willing to try them.

[justicar5]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddr...ster-says.html

Is it just me or is it whenever I see something like this I just shrug it off as so? I don't care if i'm eating horse meat. Is it good? Yes. So...... shouldn't that be the end of the discussion? It's not like it's a disgusting part of an animal that is poisonous to eat. It's horse meat.



I'm sure someone in Poland though is saying KURWA.

I care because it shows that the traceability in the process is broken. IT was fit for human consumption this time, what about next time the system breaks down?

[caratacus]

I care because it shows that the traceability in the process is broken. IT was fit for human consumption this time, what about next time the system breaks down?

Absolutely! The media in the UK including the likes of the BBC has been exceptional lacking in covering the main issues behind this case, resulting in comments that I can see above. I believe the BBC even had one of their chefs frying up some horse meat to prove thats its OK to eat!!

Well I am sure it would be for those that fancy the idea but not unless it had gone through the same process of regulation that all other meat that goes into food products. The EU have a system of identifying animals through tagging, which enables them to be traced easily from the farm to the abattoir. This protects the consumer in the event of any health issues and ensures that you know where your bacon or beef is produced. However it seems this whole expensive system has been shown to be substantially undermined when it comes to the processing stage. In this case completely unregulated meat was introduced at that stage of the meat being processed and prepared for the consumer, presumably because that its value was substantially lower. Cows and Sheep are treated with drugs which have proven to have no adverse impact on people, as far as I am aware horses are not. Also livestock is stunned, horse are put to sleep with a drug, I'm sure you would not want in your hamburger.

Fortunately the fact that it was horse meat and the fact that the Irish Government uses genetic testing, has resulted in this flaudulent trading being discovered. It would have been more difficult to identify condemned rotten meat unfit for human consumption being mixed into the batch, or meat from countries outside the EU, who's food regulation is considerably less stringent.

[The Black Mark]

I don't care personally - I have eaten horse. It's of course totally safe for human consumption.

But there's an obvious issue in a retailer selling beef burgers that contain horse meat - it's totally reasonable that people should feel they were misled into eating something they would not consent to if they had full knowledge.

[Slaytaninc]

What is the EU standard?

If it just says burger, maybe it doesn't have to be beef.

If it says beef burger, maybe it doesn't have to entirely be beef.

Bring up the standard, then we have something to discuss. I'll try and find it.

OTOH, I think I pin-pointed where the problem came in:

Liffey Meats said it believed horse DNA was originally contained in raw ingredient marked "bovine only", supplied by an EU approved factory and were minute traces.
In a statement, the company said: "Liffey Meats has never produced, purchased or traded any equine products.

Source: http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...action-676.htm

[caratacus]

What is the EU standard?

If it just says burger, maybe it doesn't have to be beef.

If it says beef burger, maybe it doesn't have to entirely be beef.

Bring up the standard, then we have something to discuss. I'll try and find it.

OTOH, I think I pin-pointed where the problem came in:

source: http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...action-676.htm

The issue isn't about the ethics of eating horse, neither is it about the constituents of a hamburger, whether it's beef, pork, horse or any other animal. It's about whether a highly expensive and complex system that has been put in place to protect the consumer has been rendered useless by a failure to prevent unscrupulous companies and individuals processing unregulated meat. As far as I am concerned this is a huge problem and unless adequately addressed should be a significant concern to anyone consuming meat based products.

Some years ago I remember reading about a police investigation in Derbyshire, England concerning a company that processed chicken meat. The company was regularly buying chicken marked unfit for human consumption and supplying companies making pies, currys ets. The investigation involved 7 officers working full time and took four years to reach a conviction. I shudder to think quite how many people ate those products within that time scale. This was for just a small company in the UK, I think the scale of this problem across Europe might be a lot larger than the authorities care to admit.

[Bobz]

What is the EU standard?

If it just says burger, maybe it doesn't have to be beef.

If it says beef burger, maybe it doesn't have to entirely be beef.

Bring up the standard, then we have something to discuss. I'll try and find it.

I don't have the exact legislation, but I can tell you that all ingredients in a food product must be clearly labelled.