The European meat recalls (Horse DNA)
 

So I've been noticing this going on over on this side of the ocean. Every so many days another development comes out about more products being discovered with traces of horsemeat in them. This started I believe with issues from Burger King's UK supplier, but it has since gone out to other parts of europe.

BBC News - Horsemeat scandal: Four new products test positive

I suppose in a way this is tied to the problems of processed meats. The problem of horse isn't so much a problem I guess (especially if it's just the DNA), but the standards of the way these things are prepared.

Re: The European meat recalls (Horse DNA)
 

I don't really understand the big controversy: do these people think horse meat is somehow more 'dirty' than cattle meat? I buy horse meat sausage to put on bread just normally, called mettwurst. I believe horse meat is a delicacy in Slavic countries, a tradition originally from the Mongolic invasion.

Also I noticed some funny cultural differences:
BBC News - Give horsemeat-tainted food to poor - German minister

Many people were offended how the German minister suggested to give the horse meat products to the poor. It caused outrage in social media and did indeed made international news. Well, funny thing because the horse meat products were requested by several NGOs here and were distributed to the poor. It didn't cause a controversy at all, quite the contrary, I can imagine the outrage in Finnish media if proper food was just thrown to trash bin.

Re: The European meat recalls (Horse DNA)
 

Oh noes, not 1% horse meat! Anything but that!

Re: The European meat recalls (Horse DNA)
 

Yes, the question of the quality of meat does arise. What is the hygiene level of horsemeat versus cattlemeat? There certainly are taste issues and rome religious issues [Muslims don't like eating horse] but these things don't matter much in the western world.

Re: The European meat recalls (Horse DNA)
 

There's no way 1% horse meat is a taste issue in crappy fast food burgers.

Re: The European meat recalls (Horse DNA)
 

One potential problem with horse meat is that it may contain residues of medication. I doubt that this is much worse than what is usually mixed into feed for other animals though.

It is also a bit unsettling that so many companies get away with selling products with mystery meat even though the EU has so many regulations. If a big European company can sell you horse meat without you noticing it what do you think the less well regulated companies in the US or other places put into their products?

This isn't the first food related scandal either. There is one scandal chasing another, already now there is one about feed with carcinogenic substances in Germany. And a week ago there were lots of articles in the news about fraud with bio (organic) products.

Re: The European meat recalls (Horse DNA)
 

That controversy already did happen in Switzerland becuase 0.1 % of pork meat was found in kebab:
Muslims shocked by pork in Swiss kebabs - The Local
Also:
BBC News - Horse DNA found in halal burgers for Lancashire schools

I respect their choice, but at the same time rather annoyed with the quran-thumping. That small amounts (0.1 %) come because the same factories process other meat, the same way of how "Traces of peanut may be found." A week ago there was an news article by the Finnish broadcaster, in which Muslim immigrants wanted the supermarket to put non-halal meat out of the normal meat desk and worry if they use the same knives to cut pork meat and other meat. That was a popular Facebook share, and naturally it's not doing very good PR.

Re: The European meat recalls (Horse DNA)
 

Lol. Yes 0.1 is a really small share of adulteration and should not have any effect on the physiology.

Thing is, Muslims don't refrain from pork meat for physiology reasons. They refrain from it due to religious reasons. So while 0.1 might not make any difference, eating such adulterated meat would still mean breaching the religious order.

Furthermore, if you don't stand up and oppose it at 0.1 percent today, it will be very hard to take a stand at 5 percent today and 20 percent the day after.

In countries where Muslim consumers make a reasonable proportion of the market, they can install a new section in the meat processing plant, which processes only the halal/cattle meat. It would make them happy that they are being cared for and it will create a small proportion of new jobs too.

For countries where Muslim consumers are not so prominent, they would have to go by this 0.1 percent mixing. God knows their intentions well and that they have no choice.

About the horsemeat adulteration. Oh well. Horse isn't haram/disallowed in Islam. It is somewhat not considered so very good choice of meat though. It doesn't make much sense throwing a tantrum over it for religious reasons. They still can throw a different tantrum for hygiene reasons as MrFancypants has explained.

Re: The European meat recalls (Horse DNA)
 

I get the outrage over a lack of truth in advertising or whatever, but I otherwise don't see the controversy either. It is meat, whether or not we place horses on a higher pedestal than cows, for some reason. I mean, I've eaten bison, caribou and moose before in my life, and paid extra for the privilege.

To be fair, I doubt I would be pleased either if I found out I had been eating horse meat (because I too place them on a pedestal for some reason), but to call it "tainted," as the media has been fond of doing, is just silly. I was particularly upset when an MP floated the idea of giving the "tainted" meat to the poor and homeless, instead of destroying it, and was immediately lampooned for essentially trying to poison the poor.

I bet people in the developing world wouldn't mind taking it off our hands.

Re: The European meat recalls (Horse DNA)
 

At least the ones dying due to starvation in africa would be thankful ... But since nobody has any political benefits attached to them, that food might end up at the ocean floor or the stomach of the fish but not a starving african child.

Re: The European meat recalls (Horse DNA)
 

It just makes people nervous when they aren't eating what they think they are. That's totally understandable. If I were in Europe right now I'd just assume that all the ground beef is mixed with something else because it seems like they keep finding it in new places. I wouldn't be surprised if meat suppliers in the US aren't doing the same thing. A short time ago there was a similar discovery that seafood was being mislabeled, selling cheap fish labeled as expensive fish. There was a funny story in Iceland where it turned out that some beef item didn't contain horse meat, or any other kind. It was vegetable protein being sold as beef.

Re: The European meat recalls (Horse DNA)
 

I'm sure you're aware of other products that "secretly" may contain very small amounts of pork, like some candies, desserts, yogurt and even medicine capsules. Gelatin has proportions of pig skin.

Gelatin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It does seem rather hysterical for others if every possible 0.1 % trace is being hunted, but I suppose the literal strict interpretation of this religious text isn't going to be revised.

It's an open secret that the tuna fish cans you buy don't necessarily contain fish that is even related to tunas. They can still just mark it as tuna atleast here. That doesn't seem to be enough for an eww-reaction though.

Some news outlets suggested that revulsion to horse meat may derive from medieval times. European pagans used to consume horse meat, but during christianization it became a taboo.

But it's not like those slaughterhouses are nice places anyway, so if one really wants to examine the food they're consuming it might be a bit unpleasant in any case, regardless if it's mixed meat or not.

Re: The European meat recalls (Horse DNA)
 

In the UK and other countries, eating horses is considered a taboo by a lot of people. There are no health risks (horse meat is actually beneficial in a lot of ways), but some people here put it on the same level as eating your pet dog. I couldn't explain why, even though I live here, but the look of utter revulsion I saw on people's faces when this news first broke was surprising. It was as though they'd just found out they had been eating human flesh.

Personally, I don't really see the problem with eating horse meat*, but I do see the problem with buying a beef burger and then finding out that a significant percentage of it is not beef, when it was not labelled as having such. While for some this is an issue of taboos and morality, for me this is just an issue of transparency.

It's also a good argument for buying good quality food from a proper butcher, rather than shitty supermarket-branded mystery burgers.



* Having said that, though, I have to say that while I have no sentimental attachment to horses, know that there's nothing wrong with it and that it's actually healthy (and supposedly tasty), now that I think about it I would probably still hesitate it you slapped a plate of horse steak in front of me. And I don't know why.