Horsemeat found in British supermarkets 'may be donkey'

[joboo]

Mmmm...donkey burgers....

http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article8489051.ece/ALTERNATES/w460/v4-horsemeat.jpg
"A law banning horses from Romanian roads may be responsible for the surge in the fraudulent sale of horsemeat on the European beef market, a French politician said yesterday.

Horse-drawn carts were a common form of transport for centuries in Romania, but hundreds of thousands of the animals are feared to have been sent to the abattoir after the change in road rules.


The law, which was passed six years ago but only enforced recently, also banned carts drawn by donkeys, leading to speculation among food-industry officials in France that some of the “horse meat” which has turned up on supermarket shelves in Britain, France and Sweden may, in fact, turn out to be donkey meat.
“Horses have been banned from Romanian roads and millions of animals have been sent to the slaughterhouse,” said Jose Bove, a veteran campaigner for small farmers who is now vice-president of the European Parliament agriculture committee.


After a couple of days in which the horse meat affair was seen as a largely British problem, the scandal began to be taken seriously by French politicians and newspapers over the weekend.


The French consumer minister, Benoît Hamon, said today that he would not hesitate to take legal action if evidence emerged that the two French companies which handled the meat had been aware of the fraud.


In passing, Mr Hamon also took a swipe at the British Government. He said that London was complaining about weak European food inspection while cutting the budget for EU food-safety checks in Brussels.


His warning came as France's biggest supermarket chains removed more of their own-label and Findus processed dishes from their shelves.

Mr Hamon said that preliminary investigation by the French agency that combats consumer fraud had uncovered the Byzantine route taken by the “fake” beef.


It came from abattoirs in Romania through a dealer in Cyprus working through another dealer in Holland to a meat plant in the south of France which sold it to a French-owned factory in Luxembourg which made it into frozen meals sold in supermarkets in 16 countries.


Meanwhile, legal action over the horse meat scandal is to be mounted in Europe, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has said as he described the contamination of beef products as a case of fraud against the public.


Mr Paterson said the scandal appeared to be "extensive" across Europe but he repeated his rejection of calls for a ban on meat imports, saying that the Food Standards Agency (FSA) advice was that all products on sale are safe for consumption.


"This is a case of fraud and a conspiracy against the public, this is a criminal action, substituting one material for another," he told BBC Breakfast in answer to questioning about calls for a ban on meat imports."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/horsemeat-found-in-british-supermarkets-may-be-donkey-8489030.html

[Cebu_4_2]

dont post anything.

[joboo]

White House warns of food safety cuts

February 11, 2013 (http://medicalxpress.com/archive/11-02-2013/) by Mary Clare Jalonick in Health (http://medicalxpress.com/health-news/)

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-white-house-food-safety.html

"(AP)—Impending across-the-board budget cuts could mean fewer government food safety inspections and higher prices for meat at the grocery store.

A White House memo released late last week said that one consequence of the federal budget cuts (http://medicalxpress.com/tags/budget+cuts/) set to take place on March 1 would be 2,100 fewer food facility inspections by the Food and Drug Administration (http://medicalxpress.com/tags/food+and+drug+administration/), "putting families at risk and costing billions in lost food production."


Department of Agriculture inspectors could be furloughed for up to 15 days, meaning meatpacking plants would have to intermittently shut down and there could be less meat in grocery stores.

Meatpacking industry officials immediately responded to the USDA furlough threat, saying it would devastate their industry."

[madfranks]

Out of curiosity, what's the big deal about horse meat, or donkey meat? What discernible differences are there that make it any different than eating the meat of a cow? Why would someone take pleasure at putting the flesh of a dead cow in their mouth but be repulsed by the prospect of doing the same from a horse?

[joboo]

I suppose one part of it is deceptive advertising. I was thinking some kind of affection for the animals, but rabbit is for sale everywhere. Societal conditioning. I wonder how it compares to Bison. Bison Burgers are soo much better than beef.

http://www.ibtimes.com/what-does-horse-meat-taste-377184

"What horse meat tastes and looks like: Horse meat varies in color. Meat from younger horses is lighter in color, and flavor, while meat from older horses has a deeper color and flavor. Horse meat is lean, typically, and relatively tender. Older horses are considered to have the most tender meat -- different than say veal from a cow.
Horse meat is a bit sweet in taste. Some think it is a blend between beef (a cow) and venison (deer). People use it similar to the way they use beef, putting it in sandwiches, or serving it in a slab. The cooking time is generally shorter than that of beef, in part because of its lean qualities.


The most popular serving of horse meat is smoked or salted. Some make horse stew, like a Veronese horse meat stew recipe which calls for two pounds of horsemeat cut from the rump, two sticks of celery, some carrots, an onion and lard to help out the lean meat in cooking.


Among the most popular chefs who has endorsed horse meat is Gordon Ramsey, who in 2007, about the time the last horse slaughter house closed in the U.S., urged the public to eat horse meat. The Scottish-born chef admitted, I've eaten horse. He said the meat is healthy, full of iron with less fat than beef and more healthy Omega 3 acids. Ramsey said, however, that horse meat is slightly gamey in flavor."

[Serpo]

http://www.gifbin.com/bin/072010/1279099815_donkey-erection-at-the-beach.gif

real donkey meat................