Horsemeat

Would an animal slaughtered for food in this country have to have a medical record saying if and when it was wormed or given antibiotics [or bute or lasix]? If so the meat coming from other countries won't be regulated in this way.

Tegan Horses in the UK have "passports" and all medication, including vaccinations, given to them is supposed to be recorded on the passports.

I'm thinking of cattle as well, wondering about the quality of the meat in general [given that some beefburgers might actually have beef in them!].....

Is that one reason why we export a large number of horses for slaughter overseas? That's a genuine question, I'm wondering if it's a way of getting rid of horses that have been on these drugs.

Tegan There are strict rules about recording any medication given to any animals for slaughter in the UK. Of course if someone can make rules and set up a system, someone else can almost certainly find a way to circumvent them. The quality of the beef used in hamburgers/beef burgers will vary depending on the price. Cheap ones will use poor quality meat but it doesn't necessarily follow that the more expensive ones are much better quality. It's more economical to make your own from minced steak – and they will certainly taste better and have a much nicer texture.

I have tried to read all the preceding posts as per instructions on another thread and wonder if I have missed the whole MONEY ISSUE?
Fact is, on the whole you get what you pay for and as long as supermarkets are under pressure to undercut each other, they will continue to squeeze their suppliers who in turn will be looking to cut costs wherever they can get away with it possible, And if that means using dodgy meat derivatives from Romania or any other country without proper regulation, it will continue to happen.
We are obsessed with cost in this country - yes I know there are many many people living in real hardship, but so there are in other European countries. Look at the quality of food in France, Germany or anywhere and compare it with the rubbish we are palmed off with. Remember BSE-"mad cow disease"?? Processed food and animals which are herbivores by nature being fed meat by-products. Growing resistance to antbiotics? A-B's fed to animals kept so close together it is the only way to stop disease spreading. Remember Salmonella in eggs? battery hens. As long as we exploit and over exploit livestock in in the interests of cheap food and at the expense of the animals' health and our own, there will be incidents like these.
I would truly rather have a small amount of locally sourced meat from a local butcher or farm shop, and not eat meat for several days of the week, than buy tasteless meat products of dubious origin and even more dubious intensive farming practices.

Well said gracesmum

Hear, hear.

Fine if you can get there and there is one!

True. There are the supermarkets' own reassurances. I believe the Co-op ones about their freedom food.

I still don't know the in's and out's of the trade in horses to Europe; I know over the years I've signed petitions to stop the live transportation of horses to the continent but not sure what the ruling is these days [I should look into it again]. Perhaps what has happened with these beefburgers is a valid reason for other countries to want to see what they're getting? Also perhaps it doesn't help that those of us that do eat meat try not to think too much about what we're eating and what happened before it reached our dinner plate. I'm not a vegetarion but eat very little in the way of red meat, although I eat a lot of chicken. I agree with what gracesmum has said about the over use of antibiotics in animals as well. All very worrying.

feckin' horses, coming over here, taking our jobs [loud laughter]

Terry Leahy was on DI Discs this week and pointed out that when he was a youngster people spent 50% of their income on food and now it is 10%

Bellows with laughter at the feckin' horses

Yippee! Glad someone found it, baubles. It had me in stitches too.

Bags

Talk is now of Mafia involvement and Polish Mafia involvement. Is there such a thing as a Polish branch of the Mafia or do they just mean organised crime?

bags great best laugh in ages

Mafia has become shorthand for organised crime, hasn't it? Russian, Polish, whatever. They say the horse meat is Romanian. So does that mean there's a Romanian mafia as well?

Why not, there's a welsh one . It's called the taffia!

gracesmum sums it all up perfectly. Anyone tried asking where the chicken comes from in chain restaurants? Pizza Express - Brazil. Not much quality check there either I suspect.

Nobody has to eat in Pizza Express. We all have at least some customer power and choice about where and what we buy.

I wouldn't have though eating Pizza Express food was a 'cheap' choice for the customer, even if the food is not great quality.

NB I have no idea what the quality of food is at Pizza Express!

The veggie options are good.

What I mean is, how many people actually ask or try to find out where the food is sourced? There's an assumption that because there are so many controls with colourings and addatives everything else is regulated in the same way. In some pubs and restaurants the only meat option is chicken. And because it's cheap chicken from goodness knows where, raised in goodness knows what conditions. The nanny state seems to have turned most of the population into mindless morons.

I wonder if people in general were ever really fussy about where their food came from or what it was, exactly, when they struggled to get enough to eat. It's only recently, during the last few generations (very few), that we in the 'rich' world have been able to be particular. Particularity about food is a modern phenomenon for all but the very rich. Most people never were bothered so long as they got enough to eat, and I suspect that that is still the case.

What's changed is the growth of interest in farming practices and the ethics involved in caring for farm animals, but even that is probably a minority concern. I know people, for instance, who simply don't want to know because they feel it would restrict their choices.

Bags I don't think people needed to be fussy years ago, as there wasn't the manufactured food, it was mainly fresh, and farming wasn't so reliant on manufactured fertilisers.