Beef/Horse meat & DNA testing non-meat products?

[plexer]

Tesco have said they'll be passing on the costs to the consumer.

 

Ben

[featured_spectre]

Tesco were on the news earlier saying they will now use primarily british sources for *all* of their food (the guy couldn't stress this enough) so we may actually be seeing things only when they are in season - which is how I personally eat.

 

I do not eat strawberries anytime out of summer, and I buy fruit and veg from my greengrocer (if I cannot grow the items myself). It is fine for me like this.

 

As for horse, well, I have eaten the following (in the UK) with no ill effect.

 

Zebra, Kudu, Ox, Yak, Horse, Camel, Alligator, Snake, Lizard, Squirrel, Rabbit, Pigeon, as well as the "offal" from all of these creatures. Only thing I do not recommend eating out of all of these are horse and zebra kidneys, they are incredibly bitter.

[sted]

id honestly be more worried about whats in cheap sausages. ive eaten horse before and cant remember hating it. it is imo more a trust issue if it says beef on the box thats what should be on it. i do eat mainly frozen meals as im lazy and not a great cook and cooking for 1 i find depressing

[rich_tech]

It thought with this crisis as well that it cant be a surprise to a lot of people, because when you look at the packet in things like sausages from the "big four" and see things like 45% meat content, people cannot honestly think that it isn't all of those by-products and rubbish anyway to make up that other 55%. I have gone very "Anti-eating" sh*t the last couple of years here myself and look at a lot of the stuff I buy contents wise.

 

A lot of people are content though it seems to "believe the illusion" when it comes to products and actually blindly follow a brand/supermarket rather than read the contents, which is why I am glad in a way this thing has happened, because at last people can see the illusion isn't there anymore when it comes to their £1 lasagne having beef in it, over spending an hour and cooking a meal together. Convenience always comes at a cost.

[localzuk]

id honestly be more worried about whats in cheap sausages. ive eaten horse before and cant remember hating it. it is imo more a trust issue if it says beef on the box thats what should be on it. i do eat mainly frozen meals as im lazy and not a great cook and cooking for 1 i find depressing

 

Never buy cheap sausages. They are mostly filler for one, lack any flavour for another, and aren't worth the money.

 

Butchers are the best source for sausages. If not there, then the finest range from Co-op are pretty good.

[plexer]

Our Tesco stocks sausages made from local pork and made in the processing factory down the road, pig goes in, sausages come out.

 

Ben

[sted]

Never buy cheap sausages. They are mostly filler for one, lack any flavour for another, and aren't worth the money.

 

Butchers are the best source for sausages. If not there, then the finest range from Co-op are pretty good.

 

as a rule baring the odd pack hotdogs i dont

[localzuk]

as a rule baring the odd pack hotdogs i dont

 

Yeah, there's no such thing as a high quality hot dog, but that's fine - you know what you're getting with them, lol.

[AMLinington]

We buy the 'Black Farmer' range of sausages in asda. They are the best I've ever tasted and that includes the ones we bought from a local butcher. 98% meat. They are lovely.

[witch]

The drug issue is a red-herring anyway - the chances of enough "bute" being in the meat to cause issues is remote. It is used on humans too - In the UK it is used to treat ankylosing spondylitis, but only when other therapies are unsuitable. It is only dangerous in large doses, and anyway, what about all the antibiotics and hormones that can be present in meat?

The main issue is the fact that something was in the meat that shouldn't be - and I would like to know that the testing is going to be stepped up on other things such as chicken or pork ready-meals.

Some manufacturers get away with saying "processed in the UK" but this doesn't mean it is UK meat.

I know Irish beef may be problematic at the moment but if a company like Macdonalds can state that it only uses British and Irish beef - despite their burgers being pretty cheap - then why can't others?

Although the supermarkets and companies are to blame, the consumer who wants ever cheaper food is also at fault. We eat entirely too much meat anyway, I'm sure others of my generation can remember our mothers managing to feed a family on a lot less meat than we use now. We should be eating less meat of better, and probably more expensive, quality.

[broc]

As a child in the 50s & 60s I can remember huge joints of meat on Sunday, followed by serving it cold on Monday & minced/casseroled on Tuesday...... we don't have joints like that these days.

[elsiegee40]

As a child in the 50s & 60s I can remember huge joints of meat on Sunday, followed by serving it cold on Monday & minced/casseroled on Tuesday...... we don't have joints like that these days.

Our Sunday joint lasts a couple of days... Unless it's truly huge, it doesn't usually make it to day 3, but that's something to do with having a teenage son!

[broc]

I can sympathise. If I recall correctly Teenage children = bottomless food pit & bottomless money pit..... & they still cost when they are in their 30s.....

[Roberto]

Can I ask, is everyone here completely appalled by the whole horse meat scandal?

 

I mean hasn't it apparently been going on for nearly 14 years and no harm has come of it and it still tastes exactly the same.

If you ask me, I couldn't really care that much, I think the only benefit from this whole thing is that supermarkets are going to start using English based companies for meat now (although that may bump the prices up a bit)

 

P.S - This is isn't a question to cause arguments, just asking for opinions

 

For me the issue is about consent, not content. While there's nothing wrong with Horsemeat, if you order beef you should get beef. If you order pork you should get pork, and so-on.

 

If people start thinking a bit more about what they eat and start to wonder what's really in those burgers at 8 for £1 and so-on, that's a good thing really.

Edited February 28, 2013 by Roberto

[caffrey]

It's getting worse!

 

Google Translate

[Bromcom_John]

Well it just got worse in our household.

This morning the other half found a probably dead, maybe just in deep hibernation due to the cold, exotic looking spider and egg sac attached to a cluster of Red grapes we bought from Tesco's on Sunday.

As the grapes are imprted from Peru I don't hold out much hope that it's a local creep.

I would provide a picture but her survival instinct borne of EXTREME arachnaphobia kicked in and the critter was verily crushed into an unrecognisable mush by the immediate and repeated application of a big cold firm grape.

it was about the size of a 50p piece and pale coloured, so not a black widow at least.

[LeMarchand]

It's getting worse!

 

Google Translate

 

Their quality control really is sh..

Edited March 5, 2013 by LeMarchand
typo

[Garacesh]

This morning the other half found a probably dead, maybe just in deep hibernation due to the cold, exotic looking spider and egg sac attached to a cluster of Red grapes we bought from Tesco's on Sunday.

Bah, that's nothing new. They call it 'natural pest control', and they say they don't want to use pesticides.

Although there have been reports of either live black windows, or black widows that were alive at the time (due to the presence of large amounts of webbing)

I would've thought they'd have sorted it by now. Was a good few months ago I saw a report about it for the first time.

[Bromcom_John]

Well the event obviosuly sparked a bit of immediate research on my part this morning.

 

Lots of reports going back to at least 2002. One of which was a Daily Fail article about the aforementioned "natural pest control", Tesco have obviously denied it.

It must be cheaper to buy grapes grown in southern Europe rather than Amazonian South America!! or at least, it ought to be

Perhaps the whole Horse meat thing (which Tesco have responded too with a pledge to "buy British" more) may put all this global food distribution into a clearer light.

 

Offending pack of grapes has been disposed of.. They offered a refund if I could take them to the store. It'll cost £3 to get there and the grapes are only worth £4...

[Garacesh]

It must be cheaper to buy grapes grown in southern Europe rather than Amazonian South America!! or at least, it ought to be

Ought to be. But presumably each vendor doesn't sell at the same ratio. Their South America supplier might be £2 per Kilo, as a plucked-out-of-thin-air example, whereas the EU seller might sell them at £3 per Kilo. If the transport cost is less than £1 per Kilo, they buy from SA. Which I don't like, but as a typical Brit, I just grumble a little and go about my daily business anyway.

 

Should we not assume profit was the driving factor, Amazonian grapes may be better quality than the EU grapes. Or the EU grapes may be unavailable because they're all sold off to cheap wine vendors that bulk-buy grapes instead of growing them themselves.

Pretty sure it's all about the profit, though.

Edited March 5, 2013 by Garacesh

[TechMonkey]

Yeah, there's no such thing as a high quality hot dog, but that's fine - you know what you're getting with them, lol.

 

I think you'll find there is, it's just not well known here. On the continent and even the US they wouldn't touch our hot dogs or even recognise them. As usual we accepted poor quality as standard and don't expect anything else.