The food chain.

[Workingman]

Do any of us really know what we are eating? Is our food exactly what it says on the packet?

We had the horseburger episode where even high-up outlets - Waitrose and Burger King - withdrew some products. Now we have news that the prison service has been serving pig contaminated pies and pasties as Halal.

When did it all start, when will it end, and how deep does it go?

We already know that processed food is chemical laden salty and sugary glop, and some people appear to have accepted that, but I will bet that they would also expect the "meat" part to be from the animal described.

What started out as a burger issue appears not to be as isolated as first thought now that other "foods" are being looked at.

[Aggers]

There are rogues now in every walk of life and in every profession - Politics, religion, banking, you name it, it has them.

It is, therefore, reasonable to expect there are rogues in the food industry.

[KateLMead]

There was a period in UK when it was suggested that people should take care of their cats as it was believed that they were being used in Chinese restaurants Not unusual for dogs being bred for the cook pot in Indonesia .. Horse meat a delicacy in France.. It will be interesting to see the Muslims reaction in Jail..The £££££ sign keeps popping up.

[Workingman]

The thing is that our food industry is supposed to be one of the most regulated in the world. It has to be given the scares of the past, BSE, and the advances in technology in industrial food production. Food scientists can take "meat" stripped from a carcass and with a bit of jiggery-pokery and chemical reactions make it look something like a slice of steak.

However, the FSA cannot control what happens in other places, nor check every consignment, that is the job of the processors. In the case of the horsemeat fiasco the managements at Dalepak and Silvercrest failed in their duty. Those who received the contaminated supplies have dropped those companies in a "look how concerned we are" sort of way, but will seek out similar supplies of junk elsewhere.

The only ones to suffer, though, will be the workers on the shop floor who did sod all wrong. Their jobs are now at risk simply because the system failed.

[Workingman]

I see that ASDA has now withdrawn four types of burger and Tesco has removed its spaghetti bolognese. This just goes on and on. It could come down to every batch of meat being DNA tested and of course the cost of the tests, plus a bit, will be passed on to us.

It will not be long before some lobby group wants something like "DNA Tested" to be on food labels.

[Oojamaflip]

Time to go veggie methinks. If only I'd got the guts to raise and slaughter my own horses.

[Kaz]

LOLOL I bought some veggie burgers today

[Diflower]

It is worrying isn't it. We buy very little in the way of processed foods, but do once in a while buy burgers, and have always made sure it says '100% beef' and checked where they were made...all for nothing it seems. For the first time in months I bought a pack of burgers from Tesco a couple of days before the first report, and was glad we hadn't eaten them!

I'm not particularly anti horsemeat being eaten, I've tasted it in France, but wouldn't choose to eat it, and would like to know that choice is mine.

[TheOstrich]

I'm not particularly anti horsemeat being eaten, I've tasted it in France, but wouldn't choose to eat it, and would like to know that choice is mine.

Mrs O has made the point to me more than once that she would like to know what the horse died of .... and I think that's quite a worrying aspect. Despite all the so-called regulation, nobody really has any idea what the provenance is of some of the things we are eating.

[Workingman]

This issue will go on.

Aldi and Findus have now removed 'beef' processed food products.

What next? Fish? There are products out there, sold at premium prices, when the actual fish content is pollack, coley or talipa - cheap fish. They are in fish fingers, fish cakes and fish pies.

The odd thing is that these fish are not popular, but they are tasty in their own right. We don't buy them because we do not know them, and many of them are delta fish, or bottom feeders which feed on... well, you know. Under normal circumstances we would not touch them.