Horsemeat scare - Waitrose admits taking beefburgers off shelves

“A supermarket in-store butcher told me that it's putting people off buying any red meat at the moment, in fact he said "it's like flogging a dead horse.”

“Thanks for your answers on horse meat,fellas.
I'd figured that having it where it's not supposed to be is wrong.
In which case I'd be wiiling to try the stuff (knowingly :-) ) just to find out how it tastes.
I reckon I've eaten some things that were not really what they were claimed to be.
Memory is telling me that some curried chicken I''ve enjoyed was not chicken at all.
Asking about,it was said to me that Penguin was what I'd been scoffing.
It was the greasy taste of the flesh that supported this identification of Pingu posing as a non swimming fowl.
Do you think that there's been and still is a long history of,I use the word in it's broadest sense,contamination,in our everday diets that although not harmful are being used to gain unfair profit?”

“@Valhalla2010, I expect you could get them if you were prepared to pay enough...”

“Stick with Duchy Originals - they're really rather good. Not that I would buy ready-made beefburgers from anywhere. The Waitrose butchers can tell you, if you ask, not only which breed of cattle their fresh beef came from but also what they were fed on. But then, so can any independent High Street butcher worth his salt.
Nothing wrong with horsemeat per se, if it's traceable and if the horses were reared for human consumption. If not, then there is a danger that the horses have been dosed with drugs and chemicals that make them unfit for human consumption. At the end of the day, it's about being sold something, particularly foodstuff, that is not what it purports to be.

Anyway, given that grocery shopping is a necessary evil to be endured, I prefer Waitrose for the atmosphere - I can shop there without being glared at.

Now, where's the foie gras?”

“But it is a cultural thing Quedgeley Guy. The point is not whether or not horsemeat should be eaten but rather than we are made AWARE of what it is we are eating. I'm rather proud of a beef and kidney stew I make which includes a little chopped up bacon to enhance the flavour. However, should the situation ever arise, I would not serve it up to a Jew or a Muslim without warning them of the inclusion of pigmeat first. Mind you - I also use an Oxo cube and Lord alone knows what goes into that!!”

“Pengipete says...
"been conned into eating it is as upsetting as finding out that your "leather" shoes were actually made of human baby skin."

It isn't really, is it?”

“"by QuedgeleyGuy
"Is there any problem with eating horsemeat as a proper butcher's cut?""

Depends on what you mean by "wrong". It's not illegal to eat horse and it's as safe as any other meat if the animal and the meat have been handled correctly.

The "wrong" involved in the recent cases is threefold.

The contents of the burgers was inaccurate and therefore illegal - if you say "x% beef", it means beef - not pork, horse or powdered brick.

The fact that the horsemeat was used raises serious concerns regarded the safety of that specific meat - rather than horsemeat in general - as it shows that the producers were not following the correct procedures in obtaining and checking the meat they used - if they were willing to use horsemeat in that way or were not checking the meat they were supplied with from source, there's a real chance that even the beef they used was illegally sourced and may not have been properly checked and certified as safe for human consumption. The potential problems and issues are way bigger than just the presence of horsemeat - that's secondary to the real concern. The fact is that if they would knowing use or unknowingly purchase horsemeat - whether through greed, ignorance or laziness - they could just as easily bought or used meat infected with BSE or worse - and that goes beyond people's feelings in to potential deaths and life-destroying diseases.

The factor that has attracted the most attention is simply that horsemeat is not "morally" acceptable to most people in Britain. It doesn't matter that some people would be happy to eat it - most aren't and finding out that they've been conned into eating it is as upsetting as finding out that your "leather" shoes were actually made of human baby skin.”

“I hope their sales are stable....”

“PengiPete, this is TIG, they like to have a bit of poetic licence. Getting their facts straight, and correct reporting is hoping for a bit much.”

“Is there any problem with eating horsemeat as a proper butcher's cut?”