It's actually not funny at all. I am not sure how much of this has been covered in the global media but we have the latest food scandal on our hands here in the UK (and other European countries): horse meat! It turns out that with our constant appetite for increasingly cheaper food products, some producers have taken it upon themselves to replace beef with horse meat in a number of ready meals, burgers etc. Needless to say, they failed to communicate this little fact to their customers and packaging still labels the meat as beef. Not only that, the horse meat used is unlikely to have undergone the same stringent tests that would be normal for beef (especially after the mad cow disease crisis). Can you imagine that some products such as "beef" lasagne actually contained 100% horse meat? And this only appears to be the tip of the iceberg...who knows which other countries are affected by this? In some countries eating horse meat is the norm and for me this is not about whether you like to eat horse or not. It's about being lied to by producers and not being given the choice.
Budgets are tight and lives are busy but I think that the only way to ensure we know what goes into our food is to make our own as much as possible. And maybe some of the recipes here, on other blogs, in books & programmes show that meals can be made from scratch without too much effort. Yes, it might need more planning and a little more time but at least we know then what we feed our families and ourselves!
Climbing off my soap box now to prepare another post with an easy & quick recipe for you to try...
Until then, get mad, get even, get cooking!
Oh Kirsten this is so shocking to read. The reliance on all the pre-prepared meals drives all this, I believe. We try to buy mostly free range and because of the cost, eat less meat. Cooking from scratch, growing some simple vegetables and being in control of what we feed our families is the only responsible way to go. Good on you for this post. Have a lovely weekend.
ReplyDeleteHi Ann! I totally agree - we need to be more in control of what we eat and that can only be done by making our own. It is horrible to read the news at the moment - really does make your stomach churn because you don't know what other nasties are lurking out there that haven't been discovered yet. :-(
DeleteHave a lovely weekend too! Kirsten x
Absolutely. It's not that it's horsemeat, it's what else might be in it!
ReplyDeleteAnd nobody has mentioned restaurants yet, that I've heard. If this is in imported frozen minced meat and restaurants aren't cooking with local/100% British meat...
Hello, by the way! I've only just found your blog but I'm enjoying what I've read!
Hi Hazel! Lovely to meet you & thank you for taking time to read the blog and for commenting.
DeleteI totally agree with you - we don't even know the half of it yet and whether restaurants etc are affected. Apparently, Burger King has already been found to be using the horse meat in some places (not that they can really be called restaurants). I hate to think what else will transpire over the next few weeks...
Kirsten this did make the news over here. It is wrong on so many levels. We have the same types of problems here. The consumer is not protected. They are buying products that are not safe and often not even buying what he/she thinks they are buying. I think it is a global problem. One has to wonder are there any ethics left in the business sector anywhere anymore? So sad.
ReplyDeleteIt is so sad & wrong! As you said, the consumer often has no idea what they are actually getting. Well, at least it is making the news & hopefully the relevant agencies will do something about it...until the next time... :-(
DeleteI smiled when I read the bit about your soapbox because you and my husband have something in common. However this main gist of this post is indeed no laughing matter. Horse meat??? OMG that is mind boggling and makes me sick to my stomach. Thank you for making me aware of this abhorrent practice.
ReplyDeleteYes, every now and again something annoys me so much, I have to get up on that soapbox :-)
DeleteIsn't it just horrible what gets given to people as "food"? Who knows what else they are going to find - it really is nasty :-(