Horsemeat?

[lioness]

goodness am I glad i don't buy ready made meals or mince from a supermarket. Makes you think.

We have a wonderful local butcher who uses local meat, so only shop there.

[Romig1]

goodness am I glad i don't buy ready made meals or mince from a supermarket. Makes you think.

We have a wonderful local butcher who uses local meat, so only shop there.

Local horse, perhaps?

[Romig1]

Seriously though, I suspect (the horse issue aside) there is more chance of contamination with differing meats with a local butcher.

For instance, if I for religious reasons didn't eat pork, could I be sure that none of the pork that the butcher had just diced for his previous customer on his chopping board would not get into my nice stewing steak cut on the same board? Do butchers wipe meat chopping boards thoroughly between meats? I can't remember ever seeing any wiping, to be fair.

[Dark Knight]

Had lots of horsemeat in France over the years
it is only the brits who have pets they wont eat, across europe it is a staple of many countries
Lioness my local butcher is alsoa wizard with meat
you point to it, he kills it, he dresses it , you buy it, cook it snd eat it, sometime it is still warm when we get it home
how excelletn is that for a local butcher top hole

[Wobgoescruising]

Haven't got a problem with horsemeat but if I'm buying beef then that's what I expect. Mind you, I wouldn't ever buy a ready made meat meal such as lasagne. However, I'm guessing these large companies are buying extremely cheap meat - and obviously not caring about quality.

[david63]

I suspect that a large part of the problem is to be laid on the doorstep of the major supermarkets with their aggressive buying tactics that results in the suppliers having to find cheaper sources for their ingredients.

Whilst all major food producers will randomly check their ingredients it is totally impractical to test everything that comes through the door and relies upon the supplier fulfilling their contract.

[Romig1]

I suspect that a large part of the problem is to be laid on the doorstep of the major supermarkets with their aggressive buying tactics that results in the suppliers having to find cheaper sources for their ingredients.

Whilst all major food producers will randomly check their ingredients it is totally impractical to test everything that comes through the door and relies upon the supplier fulfilling their contract.

...and any supply chain is only as weak (or dishonest) as it's weakest link.. It's all very well the supermarkets and food producers vetting their suppliers, but who is checking their suppliers and their suppliers in turn?

As David says, the ever increasing pressure on margins dictated by the supermarkets is bound to lead to someone, somewhere doing something they shouldn't.

[Meg 50]

it gets worse....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink ... -meat.html

[lioness]

I wouldn't eat horse personally but I don't have a problem with folk who do. The objection is if a product is labelled beef, then beef it should be, not horse!

Romig - you are right of course that they probably don't wipe after cutting pork and then cutting beef, but at least I am getting 99.9% pork, lamb or beef. LOL

[Onelife]

Clearly there can be no excuse for passing off horse meat as beef whoever is producing it but I do wonder how much blame the big five supermarkets will be willing to shoulder? This country has seen a sharp decline in its farming industry over the past two decades and most of this is due to the way supermarkets control the prices they pay for the production of this food, hence the reason we now find ourselves importing most of our food from Europe.

What's that saying..."You pay peanuts and you end up eating monkeys"... not sure if that is quite right but it goes something like that

[Quizzical Bob]

I'd rather eat peanuts than monkeys, personally.

[Kendhni]

I suspect that a large part of the problem is to be laid on the doorstep of the major supermarkets with their aggressive buying tactics that results in the suppliers having to find cheaper sources for their ingredients.

I would say that is not the fault of the supermarket but instead the fault of the suppliers who are not pricing things correctly. What this has really highlighted to me is that many of us who thought we are buying british or irish beef have actually been sold meat that could come from anywhere.

I remember when cheap Brazilian beef was brought in on a trial basis it was put alongside the locally produced meat and was flying off the shelves because it had a significantly lower price. There was a lot of complaints from the farmers and in the end they removed the brazilian beef ... then came the complaints from the customers. Most shoppers are very price conscious and while it is easy to say that the supermarkets should put the price up ... what about those at the lower end of the socio-economic scale that maybe could no longer afford the meat ... then what happens when another EU country massively undercuts the price ... you can try the 'quality;argument, but it often fails.

[Kendhni]

Seriously though, I suspect (the horse issue aside) there is more chance of contamination with differing meats with a local butcher.

Theoretically they will have a different cutting board for different meats ... for instance they should not be cutting chicken on the same board as beef etc.
I am sure a good butcher would adhere to that.

However while there have been some grand headline grabbing numbers in one instance the amount of pork found was 0.005% ... pretty much negligible.

[Onelife]

Morning Ken

“I would say that is not the fault of the supermarket but instead the fault of the suppliers who are not pricing things correctly”

Not sure the suppliers have much clout when it comes to pricing their products, especially when you consider their main retailers “are” the big supermarkets.

I think we have reached the situation where the supermarkets have all but wiped out the “smaller retailers” which in turn has left suppliers no room to negotiate a fair price for fear of losing their only outlets.

I’m a simple person with little knowledge about how the economic jigsaw puzzle fits together but it seems to me that the quest for ever greater profits has got totally out of control.

Regards

Keith

[Dark Knight]

Keefy, horse botherer
you are quite correct, the supermarkets dictate prices across the whole spectrum of items you buy and they are very very forceful in their negotiations
having dealt with clients , who supply to supermarkets and big DIY chains, let me assure you , it is all about profit and making as much money as possible
and don't let anyone tell you different

the supermarkets have a very nasty trick, they originally give you 5-10% of their volume for a certain item, then increase you sales gradually over over a period of time to say 40-60%, then increase it again ,so that 90% of your output is for the supoermarket, then they threaten to withdraw their business unless they get a major price cut, so the producer is bollixed and cannot do a thing about it

it was commonly called the Marks and Spencer gamble in the retail sector, do you risk it all or drop the price, it is a nasty practise that still goes on today, my wife and always say the same thing when we see a big sale via the DIY sheds etc, some poor sod is paying for that and it ain't the big DIY store, it is the supplier

A well known case in the industry was when LandRover almost bankrupted one of it's major suppliers and had to bail the supplier out, LandRover has screwed the supplier so badly, they went bust despite selling millions of pounds worth of equipment to LandRover, typical big business and it goes on everyday
so don't think for one second the supermarkets etc care about anyone but themselves and they dam sure don't care about the consumer either

[Kendhni]

Yes and no Keith .. yes, there is a quest for ever greater profits and maintaining market share (and dirty tactics are afoot) ... but that is surpassed by the consumers quest for ever lower prices. Even this site is a good example of that whereby people are looking for vantage fares, more OBC, getaway deals, BOGOF, DIY excursions, bringing alcohol on board etc. etc. .. and they they wonder why the service may have slipped a little.

In the farming instance I believe the farmers themselves should be protected more with the middle men and supermarkets getting a smaller slice of the pie ... but, as we saw in the 70's, people will only tolerate excessive prices for a while before they start asking questions as to why a product can be shipped half-way around the world and still be priced at half of what locally produced equivalent. For the majority if consumers 'price' is the most important buying factor .. the Brazilian beef story in my earlier post was a prime example.

[Capt Black]

Clearly there can be no excuse for passing off horse meat as beef whoever is producing it but I do wonder how much blame the big five supermarkets will be willing to shoulder? This country has seen a sharp decline in its farming industry over the past two decades and most of this is due to the way supermarkets control the prices they pay for the production of this food, hence the reason we now find ourselves importing most of our food from Europe.

What's that saying..."You pay peanuts and you end up eating monkeys"... not sure if that is quite right but it goes something like that

Mmmm...... eating monkeys......lots of varieties, lots of shapes and sizes. Not too sure about eating a baboons's bottom though.

[gfwgfw]

Black Beauty Burgers

[Dark Knight]

They give you the trots

[Ray B]

Look for the Little Red Tractor Logo. It should be able to trace the product from farm to fork.

Ray

[Kendhni]

Jeez I hope the Findus fish fingers don't contain any sea horse

[gfwgfw]

They give you the trots

You are so funny

[gfwgfw]

Not . . . .

[Dark Knight]

gfw
nice to see you have not lost your deft touch on the keyboard
I very nearly smiled

[qbman1]

This is lifted word for word from the home page of the Findus website - honestly!

"For over 50 years, Findus has stood as one of Britain's best loved names in food. Using only the best ingredients and a generous pinch of imagination in our recipes"

I guess "Imagination" must have been the name of that horse that didn't make it past the first fence at Aintree last time out !!