Horsemeat - Is It The Thin End Of The Wedge

[denis567]

Daily, there are new revelations about the horsemeat scandal and it makes me wonder whether this is just the thin end of the wedge, and there are more disturbing revelations to come. I also wonder how long this has been going on.

[Captin Kirk]

not necessarily. It depends how you consume them or how often. We have them in the freezer purely for convenience when time is tight but much prefer to prepare a meal ourselves. Living on them has other health issues to be concerned about.

[237SJ]

I agree with cupid. Shoppers can be their own worst enemies sometimes. People don`t want to pay for quality and the only way you can produce something cheaply is to cheat. The farmed salmon industry is an example of that. Most butchers were put out of business by supermarkets because people patronise the supermarkets and not the butchers. There are still good butchers around (fantastic one in North Devon where I come from) but I`d be hard pushed to find one around here (SW London). When I go home and I see the farms that my dad used to deal with, they`re all holiday homes now which is criminal. The farmers and butchers were starved by the supermarkets and now we can`t supply enough decent meat even if we wanted to.

[TheHangman]

doctorb. I think any reasonable research will tie the start of ready meal provision with the start of mass obesity, yes we always had over weight people by not on the same growing scale we now have. That maybe solely due to the fact rubbish was discarded where as now it is included. Also the new solution to health ''the five a day'' this is a solution to a new problem. Before ready made people bulked up with their five a day. Only the people can reverse this by leaving it on the supermarket shelves, using what few individual suppliers we have left. New individual suppliers would quickly follow as the market grew you only need to look at the Polish shops that have sprung up. The answer is simple say no to supermarkets, they would soon toe the line if people did.

[emmie]

i suspect it has been going on for a long while, that the so called testing hasn't been nearly adequate enough, that they have learned nothing from the food crises we have had in the past, BSE, salmonella outbreak, and now this scandal.

[emmie]

we had two butchers shop in our area, now we have none, or at least not one you would use.

[Booldawg]

keep your till receiptes; maybe we will be able to claim compo back from the food manufacturers as we have been 'wrongly sold' - much like the ppi claims

[Old_Geezer]

"Surely the very act of eating a ready meal is a sign that the consumer isn't that concerned about what they digest."

No it's a sign they don't have the time, facilities, and/or energy to prepare meals from scratch after getting home from a day's toil/commuting.

[LazyGun]

Some figures on meat consumption, beef production in the UK for your enjoyment ;)

Average intake of meat by your average british consumer has increased by around 50% over the last 40 years or so.

Average daily intake of protein ( of which 65% estimated to be meat , or processed meat, and for all sources of meat for your average consumer) is 0.82Kg - And nutritionists estimate we probably eat around 25% more than we actually should, from a health perspective.

UK total national consumption of beef annually ( note, this is for Beef only) is estimated to be 1million tonnes.

The amount of beef from one beef steer = 220 Kg

Estimated number of beef steer consumed by your average UK consumer over a lifetime - 8 ( along with 550 poultry birds, 36 pigs, 36 sheep)

Number of UK reared beef cattle slaughtered in the UK each year = 2.2 million, or around 484,000 tonnes per year, or roughly half the UK total beef consumption per year.

[brionon]

Yorkshire and Wales ? But surely it's All the fault of Europe innit ?

[doctordb]

OG, I still find time after my days toil. I haven't ate a ready meal for over eleven years after discovering what goes into them. My point is that people are up in arms about horsemeat not because they are concerned about the nutritional value of the food.

[Old_Geezer]

It is true that the issue for most is that an animal they do not consider to be a food animal but a companion or work animal had been slaughtered and hidden in their food. But that's fair enough. Folk have different opinions, that's a good a source of outrage as any. Seems to be blowing the lack of checks scandal wide open.

[hessian]

We now learn that we may have been eating horsemeat for some years. For most of us it's only sentiment that stops us eating it by choice but why not introduce it clearly labelled in processed foods - it should be much cheaper than beef.