Featuring: Tze, Ben
Gah, controversial topic! Let’s add some carefully-worded notes:
1. Being lied to (and thus being made to unknowingly eat this meat) is of course also a big issue.
2. I fully understand that people don’t want to treat horses as cattle, the point of this comic is that there seems to be such a higher “OMG WHAT” reaction in the UK than in the Netherlands when I read the news articles.
3. Frikandel (Wiki) doesn’t necessarily contain horsemeat, but there was a big public awareness thing a long time ago when it was revealed that some brands contain up to 30% horsemeat.
problems now with fish!
i would not eat in burger king any longer,that was a terriable thing to do
Most of what I’ve seen isn’t really about the meat being horse, it’s the fact that that is not what is on the packet. Simply you are not getting what you paid for.
In Italy people eat horse just like any other meat, so no moral qualms… the problem is that horse meat is usually more expensive than beef, which means if they were using it without raising price but to go cheaper… it was probably not horse that was meant for humans to eat. Could be medications, could be origin, could also be that it’s parts of the animal that are not really fit for eating (tests said there was “horse DNA”, not “horse steak DNA”). It’s not nice to pay for something and find out you have been eating sth else because the label is a lie.
That’s a good point actually! Horse DNA really doesn’t say anything, does it? Maybe brains, or eyes…or balls! XD An Italian colleague gave me shredded horsemeat with garlic, it was very tasty. :3
it really is an issue of health as Gastronomy said, the horse meat found is not for human consumption. Some of it has been rotten and some of it has been like he said treated with meds that might be very harmfull to humans. Also some horses where originally destined for the knacker and therefore definetely NOT to be eaten. But it got blown out of proportion by the whole “Horsies are our FRIENDs” thing. The real problem is the same as Germany had a few years back with the so called “Gammelfleisch” (=rotten meat) scandal. Personally, I was really sad when i was still living in Germany and the last of the horse butchers in our town closed shop. I really loved Horse Salami and the other products. Different but sooooo tasty. Now its a bit of taboo there too. Because ppl just don´t see horses as food anymore. But I am different with the whole meat eating thing anyway. I moonlighted at a butchers to ease my rent for some time once and after that I kinda get agravated when ppl who never killed or dressed an animal complain about vegans. In my book, if you want to eat meat on a regular basis, you should have at least once killed an animal yourself and did all the dirty work to get it ready for consumption. If that would be mandatory to buy and eat meat, we would have a lot less meat consumption and a lot more humane animal farming.
The main problem with horse meat in the UK is that horses are mainly pets and we don’t eat our pets. Secondly, horses were working animals up until the 1950s, and so were more valuable alive than dead. Thirdly, a lot of the horsemeat is unfit for human consumption. However, we like our food as cheap as possible so basically you get what you pay for!
Thanks for visiting my blog and in turn, I’m pleased to find yours. Much fun :) As for horsemeat, I think most Aussies have a soft spot for horses and can’t bear to think of them as food :| I on the other hand quite enjoyed Bazashi (raw horsemeat) while living in Japan (it’s quite common in northern Japan) so not sure what the hoo-ha is about really! I do however agree with CTU that the meat must be specifically raised for human consumption.
The issue for me is that meat not raised for human consumption has ended up for sale labelled as something else, so it might not be safe to eat (there’s that drug they give horses to stop them getting sick that’s not safe for humans). In addition, once companies realised what has happened they took too long to go public.
I actually totally forgot about the drug thing! I guess that’s the biggest issue right now.
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Hate to say it made me want to try horse steak next chance I get. Perhaps when I visit friends in Netherlands again.
I can’t say most people I know cared particularly.
:D That’s possible too!