I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse-lasagne!

[robot slipper]

Wait this is the horse meat story I had heard about? I thought that the meat was contaminated or something, not just switched out for a different kind of meat. I've had horse burgers before and thought it was delicious. The only problem I see here is false advertising, but beyond that it is kind of ridiculous.

Yeah, the problem I have is the whole mis-labelling thing and not knowing if it's got horse-drugs in it etc. I think the FSA was in a bit of a rush to say "there's no danger to public health" when they didn't really know that for a fact yet.

The thing I like though is that yes, it is bad and a bit ridiculous but there is a light-hearted side to it with all the puns and so forth, which is nice because most news stories are about death, death, death, suffering, violence, destruction, idiot reality tv "stars" etc.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

I'm actually pretty sure the UK is more worried about the chemicals that were once used on the horses that have suddenly ended up as meatbags.

With that said who's for dog and cat tongue?.

 

[rob_simple]

If you're eating frozen ready meals, you don't have any right to complain about what's in them. Just be glad that it's meat.

 

[Kargathia]

I know I feel slightly grossed out now, as I am usually lazy on the weekends and eat frozen ready meals, so who knows what is actually in them.

Honestly, the only thing surprising me in this whole debacle is that there was any meat in there at all.

 

[Tiger King]

Mmmmm, horse meat. Tasty tasty protein.

I did see a thing on TV about those lasagnes, actually! Some people sent in funny pictures to the One Show (I think it was the One Show, I wasn't paying full attention).

I once ate a Wild Boar burger, and that was pretty much the same as a beef burger, IMO. Those weird animal burgers seem popular at markets and stuff now, so it probably won't be long till we get a horse burger. =P

I've eaten wild boar burger too. I really liked it, it was like beef but juicier and tastier. Wonder where they get it from though, AFAIK we don't have any wild boar in Britain.

boar farms have been popping up in the uk for sometime now, not sure if they count as "wild" though

 

[Tropicaz]

This story didnt surprise me at all. You ask people in Britain what they think goat meat tastes like (if they have ever tried it) and tons of them say mutton. It's not because it actually tastes like that, it's just loads of people sell mutton pretending to be goat meat, as it's cheaper and easier to produce. So is it shocking to me that companies were doing the same but with horse instead of beef? No. They should still be cracked down on though, solely for misrepresentation.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

If you think that's bad, some of their flooring is found to have lamb-in-it...

That was truly a-baaa-minable. My ears are bleat-ing after hearing such an awful pun. I hope you're left feeling very sheepish for what you've done. To get back on topic, you've made a right horse's ass of yourself.

 

[Commerford]

This story didnt surprise me at all. You ask people in Britain what they think goat meat tastes like (if they have ever tried it) and tons of them say mutton. It's not because it actually tastes like that, it's just loads of people sell mutton pretending to be goat meat, as it's cheaper and easier to produce. So is it shocking to me that companies were doing the same but with horse instead of beef? No. They should still be cracked down on though, solely for misrepresentation.

As I understand it, the companies selling the food are somewhat the victims here. I think I remember reading something about a law change in the EU or Romania which made it much better value for the suppliers to sell horse meat rather than cattle, so they just switched it in and hoped for the best. Granted the companies using the meat should be doing their own checks.

At the end of the day, it's only Romanian horses which pulled carts around and therefore probably weren't pumped full of drugs, so no real worries.

 

[Ziggy]

Frankly, I wish the English speaking world would just hurry up and get over its horsemeat = bad taboo.

Are you French? Because i remember reading that eating horse meat is not a taboo in France.

 

[EeveeElectro]

People happily eat pigs and they are the one of the dirtiest animals.
I get the mislabeling is bad but I don't understand why everyone is getting their knickers in a twist. Probably after free stuff/money/vouchers/hoping to sue.

Also if you're feeding your kids processed foods every night instead of trying to make home cooked healthy stuff, maybe you should start making your own food then you can't complain when this stuff happens.

 

[EeveeElectro]

Also if you're feeding your kids processed foods every night instead of trying to make home cooked healthy stuff, maybe you should start making your own food then you can't complain when this stuff happens.

You think ground-up horse couldn't be mixed into the hamburger in the supermarket meat section almost just as easily as in the processed food going to some manufacturer?

I get that home cooking can be healthier than processed food, but a lot of people don't have the time for that. And suggesting that they are to blame for sellers defrauding them is rather poor.

I'm sure it could. Hell I've probably even eaten some. I'd trust it a lot more than processed food though.
A lot of people don't have time to home cook, especially working parents. Even I don't home cook every night if I'm working lates and I'm sure as hell not blaming the parents for being too busy if they are. However feeding your kids microwave meals and processed stuff every night isn't a good idea regardless of horsey contents.

 

[Piorn]

Wait, horse meat is taboo? I'm german, and I always thought of it as "mildly exotic but not weird" meat, like ostrich.

Also, mislabelling your meat is illegal for obvious reasons, but as long as the meat was ok and noone was poisoned, it shouldn't be that big of a deal, right?

 

[DigitalSushi]

And what are your thoughts on horse-meat in general?

I'm French so I eat horse meat, its not a massive part of our diets but it is something we eat from time to time, its delicious and in minced form its tastier than beef.

OK the following is in spoiler tags in case you lot are squeamish

Spoiler

when in the mountains I drink warm horses blood, it stops you getting ill and you really are as strong as a horse for the day

Mmmmm, horse meat. Tasty tasty protein.

I did see a thing on TV about those lasagnes, actually! Some people sent in funny pictures to the One Show (I think it was the One Show, I wasn't paying full attention).

I once ate a Wild Boar burger, and that was pretty much the same as a beef burger, IMO. Those weird animal burgers seem popular at markets and stuff now, so it probably won't be long till we get a horse burger. =P

Stay away from stuff like Kangaroo and Crocodile burgers and meat, they taste like armpit, doesn't matter what you season them with or what sauce you eat it with the armpit taste overpowers everything on your plate.

 

[DigitalSushi]

Frankly, I wish the English speaking world would just hurry up and get over its horsemeat = bad taboo.

Are you French? Because i remember reading that eating horse meat is not a taboo in France.

You are correct, eating horse meat is not taboo in France, we eat snails and frogs too... so Horse meat is pretty tame for us, in fact we tend to eat anything that is killed that morning.

OT, at least (as far as I know) there aren't any relegions that forbid the consumption of twilight sparkle, so that's a plus. I'm hearing and seeing a lot more stories of contaminated food products being sold, is this a by product of trying to feed our huge populations ergo quality control gets throttled to the point where they are hiring ducks[footnote]its a well known fact that ducks are incapable of telling the difference between horse meat and beef[/footnote] at warehouses?

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Mmmmm, horse meat. Tasty tasty protein.

I did see a thing on TV about those lasagnes, actually! Some people sent in funny pictures to the One Show (I think it was the One Show, I wasn't paying full attention).

I once ate a Wild Boar burger, and that was pretty much the same as a beef burger, IMO. Those weird animal burgers seem popular at markets and stuff now, so it probably won't be long till we get a horse burger. =P

I've eaten wild boar burger too. I really liked it, it was like beef but juicier and tastier. Wonder where they get it from though, AFAIK we don't have any wild boar in Britain.

There are wild boar farms. I know that in the Forest of Dean there are wild boar that escaped from them, so we've inadvertently reintroduced them, sort of.

To be honest, the only issue I have with this is not knowing the source and how clean the meat is, the idea of eating horsemeat doesn't really bother me at all. Just because they're not as fuck ugly as cows are, doesn't mean there's anything wrong with eating them.

...and to the people saying 'if you eat frozen readymeals you have no right to complain', no. That's idiotic. Just because people are in a hurry, or even if they're lazy, doesn't mean it's ok to lie to them about what they're eating.

 

[thiosk]

But then again, i never though SPAM was entirely good beef...

And why would you? It's pork shoulder with a bit of salty ham for flavor.
shoulder of
pork
And ham

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

...and to the people saying 'if you eat frozen readymeals you have no right to complain', no. That's idiotic. Just because people are in a hurry, or even if they're lazy, doesn't mean it's ok to lie to them about what they're eating.

"You mean my tictacs are actually 99% horse teeth?!"

"Shoulda grown your own mint plant boy!"

It gets sillier the more you think about it. I think false advertising is important. This is NOT ok. Because standards need to be upheld in ALL cases. It is NEVER acceptable to let things slip through without telling a customer, and its not a precedent i want to set that it might be ok in any case even though horse meat is harmless. I dont care about horse meat. I just want to make it clear no one gets away with this in ANY circumstance.