So, how does it feel to know that you have almost certainly unknowingly been eating horsemeat if you buy processed beef products?
I've eaten horsemeat in my time. Never particularly by choice - it has been served to me at people's houses - and I have eaten it. It's not bad - difficult to tell the difference from some beef. But I don't have a problem with eating horsemeat in general in theory.
I do have a problem though with companies producing burgers and lasagne, labelling them as 100% beef, and selling them to an unsuspecting public when they contain up to 99% horse. It is wrong. Not because of the horse. Rather horse than plenty of other animals. But because there are rules about this kind of thing. Laws. Labels are not suppoosed to lie. There are plenty of ways of them bending the truth, which the food companies exploit as much as they can. But they are not supposed to lie.
We have a right, as consumers, to know what is going into the food we are sold. You could argue we have entered into a sort of pact with the devil - by demanding cheaper and cheaper food, which is easier and easier to prepare, we are somehow forfeiting our right to know what we eat.
Well, the smug only buys fresh side of me did have a little smirk when all this news about horse meat came out. I have always mistrusted food companies who process food. I'm not saying that I never buy convenience food, but I almost never buy it, and when I do it tends to be vegetarian pizzas.
But no, the consumer has not entered into some kind of pact. We pay money for our food, as well we should, and in exchange we should be able to expect to know what we are eating. And when we buy a product that is 100% beef, it shouldn't contain even a trace of pork, horse, cat or even veal. It should contain only beef. It really is that simple.
So, the press need to stop freaking out that it is horsemeat, and start focussing on the public being lied to. I have a sneaking suspicion that this really is the thin end of the wedge. Not just beef vs horses. But vegetarian products might well be found to have non vegetarian products in them. Things sold as organic may be anything but. Free range? Ha! Pork filler might be found all over the shop. And whoever decided to dishonestly introduce ingredients into processed food needs to be held to account by whatever legal means is suitable.
You might prefer to turn a blind eye to where your food is from. You wouldn't be alone, plenty of people do. But some people might want to start looking into just what goes in our food. Even the stuff which is sold as sugar free fat free presevative free organic wind chime whistling as fresh as a daisy food.
And there is a choice to be made. Cheap and easy? Or cheap and easy? Cheap and easy ready meals? Or cheap and easy home made from fresh food. Which takes a little more time. But what price peace of mind?
I'm like you, I almost never buy processed food. My freezer contains a couple of packs of M&S sausages and I have a tin of Haggis in my pantry but that's it.
ReplyDeleteI don't trust food companies either, there's too much money involved and the temptation to cheat is obviously great.
But you're right, this story is not about horsemeat in beefburgers, it's about accurate food labelling, checks for quality and maintaining standards so that the public can trust food labels.
Actually, the outcome I hope from all this is that people will lose trust and start cooking again.
I'm hoping that too.
ReplyDeleteEveryone right up the food chain other than the processors would be better off if we did get back to basics as far as food is concerned. But will people want to give up cheap and convenient?
ReplyDeleteToo right - I totally agree. If you buy food and it says it is something, it should be what it's said it is (does that make sense). If it IS horsemeat, fine, but let us know that it's horsemeat.
ReplyDeleteI had exactly the same sort of smugness when this hit the press, because there is no way me or my family have un-knowingly eaten horses. I would be gutted though, as I love horses, as I love ducks and rabbits and deer...I choose not eat them either.
ReplyDeleteI'm a carnivore and will eat most types of meat. It's nice to know what kind of meat though and be iven that choice.
DeleteYou hit it on the nail there. I had a rant during the BBC Breakfast show this morning when some health & safety person was reacting to the Findus news with 'It is not likely that eating the lasagne will result in any adverse health reaction however we would recommend that if you have this at home you do not eat it'.
ReplyDeleteIt's completely missing the point. I was shouting 'Of course they're not going to be ill, it's #%@!! horse, not radioactive waste!'. I don't care if there's horse, reindeer or ostrich in my burger. Well, actually I do, but that's because I want to know it's reindeer in the first place. The problem is that clearly, if there is radioactive waste and whatever else in our burgers, we are none the wiser and that is simply unacceptable. And the even bigger problem is, we are not just talking about what you and I would classify as 'junk food' but any food item that graces our shelves. Unless the vegetable has come from our own garden we can't possibly know what random crap it might have been injected with that they're not telling us about. Scary.