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In burgers? In Russia horse meat is much more expensive than beef. And sausage made of horse meat (called kazy) is not very easy to find outside of some regions and is very expensive. So I can understand management of burger joints as suppliers are bound to charge more for horse meat. But why is all this panic like someone is trying to poison somebody? Horse meat is good for you! :-)
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Mislabelling
As far as I can understand it, the horses are slaughtered, sent to various processors as horse meat, but at least one of them, seeking to make a bigger profit, relabels the horse meat as beef and sells it on. The receiving business fails to notice that the meat when defrosted looks and smells rather different to beef and doesn't have the correct paperwork, but uses it anyway. Eventually, it arrives in the final product.
It seems as though the chain is far longer than abbatoir --> butcher --> processor --> factory, with multiple processors en-route.
It's also not just horse DNA - they've found pig meat relabelled as beef as well. I think the concern isn't so much that it's horse per se, but that the contents of the meal are not what's described. It's also possible that horses that at time of slaughter were never intended for the human food chain have ended up in the meat products. These animals are likely to have been treated with various medicines including methylbutazone (aka bute), which in sufficient concentrations can be potentially carcinogenic in humans. There's also the question of "If they can hide horse and pig meat in these products, what else can they hide?!" After all, they tested specifically for horse DNA and pig DNA, not that of any other species.
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
It does not make sense.
Why relable diamonds as coal? Horse meat is much more expensive! So customer gets a better deal having burger infused with horse meat. (Had I mentioned that horse meat is aphrodisiac?)
Horsemeat in NOT more expensive everywhere
In particular, in Romania and South America, horsemeat is cheap; for various reasons. Not least of which is that most horses that go to slaughter in S.A. are very old and no good for anything much anymore.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
But the scandal is in Europe...
... where horse met is more expensive!
And any meat from S.A. is...
...more expensive then local...
Not true
In fact, the US has regulations to prevent the importation of fresh beef from Argentina and Brazil so as to protect American beef suppliers from the low cost S.A. beef. This isn't true in Europe and several Euro countries import S.A. horse and beef.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Yes, We have regulations
Have you recently bought canned corned beef? I've seen both labeled as products of Brazil and Argentina.
Just makes me wonder?;0
Besides, my sister had a Tennessee Walker that I woulda rather eaten than tended to! That horse was a Bitch!!!
Love And Hugs,
Jonelle
P.S. There's still something on the way to help you and the site.;) I worked over 100 hours in the last two weeks. Add that to tending to Mom?... Well, You get it.;)
[email protected]
Corned beef is allowed
Just not fresh beef, it has to be preserved. Even cooked, canned beef is not allowed. When I was a kid, you could buy roast beef in a can like corned beef, but not anymore.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
When I lived
In Belgium (so many years ago), horsemeat for human consumption was cheaper than beef. One of the reasons it was relatively common on most families' tables.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Not so in the UK
Over here, horse meat is about the quarter of the price of beef so there's a good incentive for some criminal to do a switch.
Reasons: apart from what others have said, the price of beef has gone up since the BSE business because every bovine has to have a birth certificate and is followed from cradle to, er, abattoir and beyond to ensure no unwanted body parts get into the food chain.
The big scandal is that despite this, DNA from other animals has been found. If they can't keep out other species, what guarantee have we that the bad bits of beef have been left out?
Penny
*shrug* No guarantees at all,
*shrug*
No guarantees at all, but that's been the case ever since 'mystery meat' in the form of sausages and meat pies were developed. It could be four and twenty blackbirds, or four and twenty rat turds...
What I grew up with was a family that bought meat cheap, and in bulk, and stuffed it in the freezer. We'd thaw part of it, then use a hand grinder to turn it into hamburger (or cook it otherwise)
You get meat that's still recognisable as being from the original animal (if you know what to look for) from a store that actually did the main butchering (if you pick the right shop). You can also work a deal with farmers in your areas. Many will be more than happy to have guaranteed money up front to feed up a calf for you (or a steer), and then get it delivered to a butcher of your choice.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
No guarantees...
Just don't buy any of those meat pies from Sweeney Todd.
Or cut my own throat Dibbler.
Or cut my own throat Dibbler. :P
And why is bute undetectable by itself?
And if it is not detectable, what prevents beef manufacturers from using it?
In Québec when I was younger,
In Québec when I was younger, there was big fine if you didn't sell the write kind of meat. You got general butcher shop and you got equine butcher.
Peace and Love
tmf
Well
I think the main thing is the mislabelling is the major concern along with the possible exposure to harmful drugs administered to the animal. The underlying concern, is a Western European, and North American cultural reaction, they just don't think of horses as a food animal, they have no problems with bovine or porcine products those are seen as raised for food production. Just as in certain parts of the world dog and cat are considered dishes too, but I doubt they would be welcome as a main course in other places. Just my take on the matter
Not only that...
Some people have religious objections to eating pork, horse, or whatever. Also, if you see horses as companion type animals (and many do,) you will probably feel the same way about eating horse meat that most of us feel about eating cat or dog.
It subjective
I don't know why, but there is some stigma in eating one mount. And a lot of peoples can only put an animal into on slot.
a horse is a mount.
a cat/dog is a pet/family member.
a rat is a pest/nuisance.
But they all are meat as is beef, pig, goat, chicken...
The DNA is just the way to confirm the difference.
Please, I do not say that I eat any of the "non-standard" meat product and do not want to start any thing. Just saying if it's meat there is some one that do eat it and love it. The same as there is some one who will be offended by on meat type or the other or all of them.
Peace, Love and Happiness
tmf
Alternate explanation.
In many places they (or we) do not eat companion animals.
Over here in America,
eating meat from any animal considered a pet is frowned upon.
May Your Light Forever Shine
I grew up with a truck farm,
I grew up with a truck farm, and my mother was from a full rural farm in West Va. I understood that the animal I was feeding in the morning could be on the dinner table in the evening. I also look at animals for their utility. Horse == transport, labor, food, leather, glue. Cow == milk, food, leather, glue. Etc,
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
You and me both...
Those of us who grew up with livestock see things differently. We have no problem with the concept that some animal has to die in order to provide us with meat.
Those who have never actually experienced the gritty reality of converting a live animal into dead meat aren't necessarily going to want to look this reality in the face. They may accept it on an intellectual level, but still remain anti-hunter and devoutly wish to never see the sight of an animal being slaughtered.
I have to admit that I would have no problem eating horse meat, but there is no way I would want to eat dog or cat meat. Goat is yummy, though. :-)
Goat
Certainly is yummy!
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Never had opportunity to eat goat...
But milk piglets and bunnies are not only cute, but quite tasty :-)
And in China had pigeon and it is quite nice. But not that different from chicken :-)
Never had cabrito (goat), but
Never had cabrito (goat), but I'd like to try it. Mutton is REALLY strong and best mixed with other stuff, like a stroganoff. Lamb is much better, and good as hamburgers.
dog and cat? I know what _they_ eat, and I'm not interested. Besides, not enough meat on the bones, and not worth trying to fatten up predators.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Perhaps from the Old Testament?
Perhaps some of the prejudice against horse meat is in the Old Testament of the Bible eating the meat of an animal with a non-cloven hoof is forbidden, not-Kosher, Haraam?
Gwendolyn
It's cultural
and relates to deception, as Ben said, things being mislabelled deliberately to make money fraudulently.
Horse is not seen as suitable for human consumption in the UK for the reasons Ben suggested, and as many of those slaughtered (1000 pa)are ex race horses, they may been treated with Bute and thus risky to humans. They are either exported or end up in cat food. In times of hardship like during the First and Second World Wars, people ate anything they could get hold of including horses.
Romania has been implicated because they recently changed the law on using horses as draught animals so hundreds of thousands were killed. In Ireland, another source of horse DNA, horses were left to roam starving when the economy collapsed - many of them were slaughtered. Controls are also rather poor.
In the UK we also have areas where horses and ponies are left to run with few controls, such the New Forest, where there are also pigs left to roam - it's a Victorian delusion of some arcadian myth - the reality being people starved to death in rural poverty while the family in the big house prospered whatever happened - nothing new there then.
Horse was on the menu in the Iron Age and earlier times in this country, as were dog and back in the Neolithic - humans, as is true of most areas - certainly it happened in the Americas, Polynesia and Africa. If they start putting people in burgers I shall definitely go vegetarian, though I eat more fish than meat - so far it hasn't improved my brain as far as I know!
Angharad
Soylent green is people!
Did Romania ban horses as draft animals? If so, that doesn't make any sense.
Most horses that I've been around wouldn't have been treated with much of anything, unless they were actually ill. Despite what the Chicken Littles out there like to say, farmers and anyone else _don't_ want to spend a penny more than they have to to maintain the health of their livestock. It's the same with fertilizer - farmers don't overfertilize. They can't afford to. Suburbanites around them, however, are MORE than happy to overfertilize.
Race horses are a different breed (pun expected, but not really intended). The owners of those have money to flush, so they'll go overboard with all sorts of treatments if they can get away with them. They're just about as bad as heavy atheletes... Like cyclists... :)
*duck*
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Did anybody hear...
about the cannibal who invented human cloning? = )
He was full of himself over his discovery. : )