Saturday, February 16, 2013

Thought of the Day!

I`m not sure. I may have eaten Horse meat, but I`m not so sure. Why? Well at the moment in this country of ours, there has erupted a scandal of huge proportions. It seems that unscrupulous meat traders, have been supplying Horse meat to food producers, disguised as Beef.
Now this brings into focus, as to just who is putting what into ready meals, processed foods and pies etc. We are told that we can rely on the manufacturer of the end product to label and define exactly whats in a particular item.  But no, it seems that all have either been duped or have been a party to this scam. As you all know, meat, beef, pork etc, gets shipped about, from Abattoir's,  to middle men and then to food manufacturers. There is supposed to be Traceability? Now my wife and I cook and produce our own meals, we dont buy ready meals etc, nor do we use pre cooked stuff. but thats our choice, some others may not be so lucky. There may be a serious, need to be cost conscious,  especially these days. So are we to worry, when all is said and done, its just Horse meat?  But hold one here!  Now I`m talking about Britain here, we here as horse owners have a thing called a Horse Passport, we are supposed to carry it whenever we travel with or ride a horse. The Police may ask to inspect it at any time, but never do.
We are duty bound to complete the section in the Passport where, any form of treatment, especially injections are given, but no one I know does, we give horses, that is our horses all sorts of chemicals from time to time. but the one that worried me was “Bute”, or to give it its proper name, Phenylbutazone , was used in humans as a painkiller, but was found to be toxic. It was then withdrawn, as it also was believed to be a carcinogen.
So is it getting into the food chain? So far some carcasses have been found to contain Bute, and as we in this country find it abhorrent to eat Horsemeat, what the hell is going on out there!
The Police have begun investigations, across Europe too, and no doubt some poor unsuspecting dupe will get the can hung around his or her neck. Obviously some company or other, has decided to cut corners and sell Horsemeat as Beef. With the sudden change of laws in Rumania, where they have decided to ban all horses on the public roads, in a move to become more modern, no doubt the slaughtering of horses is causing a glut, of meat, that needs to find a buyer?  So who do we trust? Finally, our own government is clearly not saying there is a health issue here, so why not? They dont seem to be too worried, of course there is the usual platitudes, Supermarkets and Government,  and efforts to “get to the bottom of this “, but then most governments dont want to upset there own paymasters, do they?
So I ask again, whose Government is it?

11 comments:

  1. I understand that horsemeat sells at about a quarter of the cost of beef in Europe, and that marketing horsemeat as beef gives the middle man much bigger profits. Greed takes over once again!
    In a country that already has a plethora of laws, it seems that horsemen are about to get inundated with more regulations, although how they will control this I don't know. Unscrupulous people always find their way around laws.

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    1. Thats probably true Shirley, where there is cash, there is trash!

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  2. Wowee, that is a very serious stuff there! It's very bad marketing for the markets and I'm sure they will need more PROOF of content.

    We have the USDA here.A strict code of handling, housing, feeding, butchering, storage and
    transporting.

    Though, over the years, certain legal, approved practices have been banned or ostracized by other companies in labeling ( marketing pressure is huge here) to many human casualties., or I'll side effects.
    F.ood D. rug A. dministration
    They are involved in some consumption products too.

    Interesting about your passport. We have that if crossing state lines.

    Hope it gets sorted.

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    1. Proof has been found in some cases 100% horse in a Beefburger!!!!!! Pork in Beefburger, etc, schools food has also been contaminated.

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  3. I heard parts of this on the news. Sounds like a nightmare, I would agree with what you said to Shirley....sadly there will always be trash out there.I think I would be sick if I ate Horsemeat...not to say you couldn't fool me but if I knew ...I think the server would be wearing it as it came back.Sure hope they get that sorted... schools - hospitals who knows how long that's been going on.....How did they find out?

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    1. They found out because the Irish Foods Standard Agency decided to check. But the question is, why did they check? Did they have some information?

      When they knew, they passed the results on.

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  4. I'm vegan so I don't have to worry about it. I don't eat anyone's pets. ;)

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  5. Very scary. Not only because we love our horses but, with all the chemicals given to, sprayed on, etc...Scary!
    We generally purchase a side of beef for the freezer from a trusted source. Seems the way to go for sure now.

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    1. Its the only way here too, we get a Lamb whole, or beef as a side.

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  6. I find it worrying that manufacturers seem to have little idea what goes into our food. If they think it's beef and it's not then it could be almost anything and probably won't have had the correct food safety checks (as any paperwork would say 'beef' on it it's all been forged or tampered with in some way)

    Other food items carry labels such as 'may contain nuts'. They really should know what's in there, not just take a few guesses.

    Even some veggie foods have been discovered to contain meat products - animal gelatine for example even though foods are labelled as suitable for vegans.

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