The food chain.

[Workingman]

I know that this does not appear to be of concern to most of us, but the FSA and government have now said not to dump these products. What are we to do, eat them?

I do not buy processed food so I am not bothered that much, but nearly 50% of all meat bought is of the processed variety. Some Findus products had 100% horsemeat, some Tesco products had 80% horsemeat.

To me it is bloody wrong for these people to say that it is not a health risk. It might not be, but it is not beef!

It makes me ask what the hell else is in our food? Soylent Green anyone?

[Oojamaflip]

It makes me ask what the hell else is in our food? Soylent Green anyone?

I said exactly the same thing to Mr O.

It doesn't bother me that some of the stuff I may have eaten turns out to be horsemeat. If I'm willing to eat a pig or a sheep, why not a horse? What bothers me is that the labelling we trust has turned out to be complete and utter lies. It is criminal and I hope it's treated as such.

[TheOstrich]

I think the problem with horse-meat is that there's a potent painkilling drug - phenylbutazone - that is banned from the human food-chain but is still widely used on horses. Findus have been asked to test if there are any traces of it in their "beef" products. It may be banned here, but these prepared foods are coming from abroad, and EU standards (and the implimentation of them) are not our standards.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink ... -bute.html

WM mentioned fish - again, my concern is not so much the type of fish, but what's in the flesh - whether it's come from contaminated waters.

[KateLMead]

In my opinion every thing we eat, unless we breed our own animals, and grow our own veg, are at risk...even then I think Growmore is a hormone..
There are no animals that aren't stuffed with hormones and antibiotics at birth,
baby chicks all injected with antibiotics and hormones to make them nice and fat.
Lambs, horses, cows, pigs.. I would like to know of any animal other than those in the wild that are not stuffed with these hormones and antibiotics. No wonder so many of our antibiotics are failing to work.
And we can include the suspect water we drink, whether we like it or not .

[Kaz]

I was a veggie for a couple of years in my early 20s - starting to wonder if I might go that way again The stuff about the horse painkiller is very very worrying I bought good quality minced lamb to make a shepherd's pie yesterday, rather than the minced beef I usually buy - nobody noticed the difference, although generally my kids say they hate lamb......

[KateLMead]

Remember the Mcartney supposedly first class vegetarian frozen foods brought to book around four years ago when her found to contain "MEAT" substances...

[KateLMead]

Remember the Mcartney supposedly first class vegetarian frozen foods being brought to book around four years ago when her products were found to contain "MEAT" substances...

[Workingman]

Finally the government takes notice! The constant drip-drip of new cases has forced it into a summit with the FSA, retailers and producers.

The current advice is to continue to eat 'beef' products, even though they may be contaminated, now sounds crass. My guess is that the lot of them are scared that the public will simply stop buying the stuff, thus doing their jobs for them.

There might even be a silver lining to all of this if people start buying meat again instead of the chemically stripped, high pressure slurry, reformed by the food boffins into looking something like a beefburger or chicken nuggets or kebab meat. People might even start doing that strange thing called "cooking" and actually tasting their food...

[Diflower]

That's just what I was saying this morning WM, sadly a lot of people will be genuinely flummoxed as to what they can eat.
The whole culture of ready meals and other processed foods is so enormous now it's going to be very hard to undo it all.

But undo it is I think what's going to be necessary, the bigger this scandal gets the more people will realise it's not a question of accidentally eating a bit of horse, it's the point that if it's beef from British cattle then it's registered and regulated. Horsemeat could have come from anywhere, and may well not have been passed as fit for human consumption.

Also, having worked for a couple of largely Jewish companies and seen how important their food rules are, I can hardly imagine just how upset the people must be who have unwittingly eaten pork. And as a lot of those were in prison or hospital, they can't be blamed for not sourcing or preparing their own food either.

[KateLMead]

We have Schmallenberg disease that is rife in Wales, caused by midge bites.. These lambs are not detroyed they are fed and sold as are other diseased animals.. Farmers are not broke!! they all receive a massive subsidy from the EU and are always pleading poverty
I haven't met a poverty stricken farmer yet.. Top of the ark equipment, top Rangerovers etc, around here they claim subsidies on pasture land, some of the the biggest offenders are well off Welsh and Scots who buy acres of waste land and then put in claims for subsidies.. Fish I do not eat, the mere thought of doing so with all the contamination, from nuclear, to oil, to waste and sewage.. "No thank you very much"! I have always eaten butter,President best butter on the market from France, always eaten beef and lamb, liver, pork, inspite of the risks..
Customs turned away a cargo ship from the port that contained 950 diseased and dead animals last week, the vessel was sent back to India from whence it came.