Horse meat?

[Hivemaker.]

so what else are they not telling you about.

May contain nuts.

 

[VEG]

or pollen lol

 

[Luminos]

May contain nuts.

That's OK as long as it isn't horses nuts

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

if you look at the label there is a little round thing which states EU or UK and a number. only UK bred pigs can have UK on it. Pigs raised in the EU and processed in the UK still have to have EU on the label. The number relates to the slaughterhouse and if you google for it, you can find a list of the actual slaughterhouse.
so, on my pack of Tesco smoked streaky bacon it says UK KM088 EC. That tells me the pigs were UK bred, reared and killed and processed by a slaughterhouse in kirklees.
Here is the document which lists all the abattoirs by number www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/.../meatproductsapprovaleng.xls.IIRC it can also tell you if they use halal methods of killing. All New Zealand lamb is killed halal. This is why I go once a month to Howards of Gayton and buy what I need from him. I don't want halal killed meat.

I prefer not to buy my meat from Tescos, forget the little round label - I perfer to buy meat where I know not only the country of origin but the county, village and farm and which side of the valley the cow was born

 

[VEG]

My local butcher names the farms the meat comes from. One of them being the farm I keep my bees on.

 

[pargyle]

I agree with mbc that it is the people and there wallets that make the decisions,plus the comments on town parking.

Cannot really see anything wrong with the large stores, most of them started off as just one shop at some point, we have a local butcher with one shop and another with ten shops, maybe the one with ten shops will have a thousand some day,and the other may expand to four shops. Same thing happens with many other businesses, even with big bee appliance suppliers,they started off small
once.

I rekon the internet has a fair bit to do with with the closure of some of the high street shops as well.

I have no issue with small businesses growing ... I was working for Woolworths when Jack Cohen started Tesco and watched his growth with interest... I spent many years, after that, negotiating with the retail giants of the UK and very much understand the retail power (particularly in the food sector) that is in the hands of a very few major supermarkets. I have also seen, at first hand, the cosy relationship that the retail giants have with town planners ... and the way their money talks ... a new roundabout, a new bypass, a new community centre in return (sorry - as part of the requirement) for planning permission to be granted. It's an uncomfortable situation for the rest of the high street.

I agree with your comment about the internet ... although I think it is the non-food sector that has seen the biggest expansion in internet shopping - certainly the recent demise of some major non-food retailers could be directly linked to the growth of the internet.

 

[MuswellMetro]

I prefer not to buy my meat from Tescos, forget the little round label - I perfer to buy meat where I know not only the country of origin but the county, village and farm and which side of the valley the cow was born

I prefer not to buy meat from major supermarkets as quite a lot of the meat is ritually killed and bland and not properly hung http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-M-S-dont-tell-meat-ritually-slaughtered.html and never buy New Zealand lamb for the same reason

 

[pargyle]

I prefer not to buy meat from major supermarkets as quite a lot of the meat is ritually killed and bland and not properly hung http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-M-S-dont-tell-meat-ritually-slaughtered.html and never buy New Zealand lamb for the same reason

It's an old article but I didn't know anything about this ... worrying. Thanks for bringing this link in.

 

[MuswellMetro]

It's an old article but I didn't know anything about this ... worrying. Thanks for bringing this link in.

lots of more upto date info if you google it

 

[Dishmop]

Food is imported into the UK in containers often without having an end buyer.
It is stored at deep freeze depots all over the UK. who have nothing to do with food production. Accompanying the main order are several boxes of samples.
Food "brokers" will contact food production companies in the UK to see if they are interested in buying any of whatever it is in containers. Burgers, herbs, chicken, etc etc.
The brokers then arrange for couriers with fridge vans to collect these samples and deliver to the prospective buyers. The brokers often never see the actual product and are probably only a little office somewhere very distant from the cold store.

I have been asked to collect these samples and sometimes at some point before it is delivered, to remove the contents and put it in different boxes that are not marked with the country of origin, and or the producer. Burgers from Taiwan (or somewhere like that,) taken to a takeaway company main office, as an example.
Its not rocket science to understand that these samples could well be of a different quality than the bulk of the load.
These container loads of produce are often split up and moved to other cold store companies within the UK. plus to food producers.
Much of Marks and Spencer prepared chicken products do not contain chicken reared in the UK. The factory that produces these lines for M&S gets it from Europe, delivered every day by trucks from Holland, but that doesnt mean that the chicken was reared in Belgium.
Ginsters are supplied with chicken for pies by the same company as supplies M&S products..... No doubt these pies are marked as "Produce of the UK" which is quite legal because any food that comes onto the UK only needs to be sprinkled with salt for it to become a UK product.
Telfers Foods in Northampton also use chicken from Europe as do Caledonian Foods in Scotland, but stuff that leaves their factories are products of the UK.

I have collected frozen food from food producers which is nearing its shelf life and delivered it to other cold stores... It might get moved more than once but will probably finish up at a cold store who also happen to be (cheap) "ready meal" producers. These producers will then buy this meat, herbs,vegetables or whatever and make "New" ready meals which then have a new use by date, all made from old stock which other companies didnt want, and again all perfectly legal.

Based on this is it not hard to see how horse meat can be converted to beef. Its quite probable that if horse meat is used in UK products that it is without the knowledge of the producers, the real identity of the meat being lost and converted by its being shipped around, re-packed, treated.
In my experience meat only goes into a pie factory as cut up meat. The pie companies etc., even specify what size the meat is cut up into and I have seen it being measured on delivery and rejected for not being correct. I think I have probably delived stuff to most of the major food producers in the UK and the majority of them are very clean and strict on hygeine. Drivers are often not allowed onto the loading bay, or if they are they have to wear paper caps. One bakery I used to go to wouldnt accept boxes of produce that had been on the floor of the van but had to be standing on cardboard on pallets, but the stupid thing was that they would supply you with a pallet and cardboard to transfer the load onto but you had to do it inside the vehicle.

Supermarkets with prepacked cheese on the shelf that is near or past its sell by date, unpack this cheese, grate it and sell it loose on the deli counter. Again, legal.
The same happens with bacon, they sell it as bacon pieces.

On one occasion when I delivered the Christmas food to a prison, the storeman where I collected it from was pulling the "use by" labels off boxes of stuffing and replacing them with newer ones.

Pre packed sandwiches are the best part of a day old before they are date stamped, because they are made during the day and then date stamped after mid night, thereby giving them an extra day of shelf life.
Supermarkets regularly have samples delivered to thier buyers at the head office so they can check on continued quality, but of course the producers are going to make sure that theres nothing wrong with the samples that they send.. it would be a better idea if the supermarket buyers went to the stores and took samples off the shelf for testing.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Dishmop, it sounds like you have a good insight as to what is going on, what with all your travels dealing with imported food.

 

[madasafish]

When I was a student I worked in cold stores storing food as described by Dishmop.. The descriptions of what goes on have hardly changed in the last 40 odd years.

I'll eat anything - properly described.. We are after all carnivores.. Mammoth anyone?

I don't mind meat past sell by dates either as long as it has been properly kept: Steak going green or bacon which has dried out is a no-no.

After all, people ate 100 years old tinned meat from various failed Antarctic expeditions...

http://tinyurl.com/25lo7m5 is worth reading.

And no doubt our not so long ago ancestors ate meat that was not well preserved - see sailors eating salt pork and ships biscuit with added meat sorry weevils.

Not to say the above was a healthy diet but there are worse things to eat.


Most people do themselves more harm by eating too much - eg fizzy drinks, pies and fast foods. See all the fatties around..

Or visit a NHS hospital where killing patients early is considered acceptable.

On a risk basis of 0 to 10 where 10 is high, I rate eating horsemeat is 0 and out of date but looking ok meat is 2.

Going to a NHS hospital is 8. (One friend caught MRSA and survived, one caught C Diff and died - Mid Staffs - and another (last year ) had the wrong aftercare instructions after an eye op and nearly lost his eye...)

 

[Dishmop]

Dishmop, it sounds like you have a good insight as to what is going on, what with all your travels dealing with imported food.

One of the cheap ready meal places I used to go to had security keypad locks on all the doors so "unwanted" suprise visitors couldnt get in.

 

[Dishmop]

Or visit a NHS hospital where killing patients early is considered acceptable.

Letting elderly people die by not feeding them has been going on for years, but never spoken about. Natural death it was put down as. Now they call it dying with dignity, and have some silly name for it.

 

[onymee]

When I was a student I worked in cold stores storing food as described by Dishmop.. The descriptions of what goes on have hardly changed in the last 40 odd years.

I'll eat anything - properly described.. We are after all carnivores..

actually no, we are not, we are omnivores. A carnivore is an animal who cannot survive without taurine and taurine only exists in muscle meat (not offal) so cats, ferrets, stoats, weasels, tigers, lions etc are all carnivores. Humans, dogs, chimps are all omnivores.

And no doubt our not so long ago ancestors ate meat that was not well preserved - see sailors eating salt pork and ships biscuit with added meat sorry weevils.

eating insects is not bad. Many cultures have insects as part of their diet.Weevils are not an indication of food being bad. I breed mealworms (for my bearded dragon) and those are the sort of beetles who lived in the flour which was baked into biscuits on ships.They live in dry meal and not on anything damp or mouldy.They would not harm anyone who ate them and are apparently quite nutritious.

Most people do themselves more harm by eating too much - eg fizzy drinks, pies and fast foods. See all the fatties around..

oh god yes. Even adults get dazzled by advert's, pretty colours and pictures on boxes and of course what they perceive as 'cheap'. Much like children in a sweety shop, or gullible primitive humans shown an array of gewgaws, beads, mirrors etc. They don't read the labels or don't want to read the labels because that means they'd know what rubbish was in the ready meals which then means that they would either have to change what they ate/drank, or, if they carried on, did so knowing that they are eating rubbish.They prefer to believe that there is nothing wrong with their dietary choices, indeed that it's all healthy and it's a complete mystery why they are grossly obese, and it must be in their genes, their glands, or they are heavy boned.

Or visit a NHS hospital where killing patients early is considered acceptable.

Naming it a 'care' pathway, means it isn't really euthanasia.

On a risk basis of 0 to 10 where 10 is high, I rate eating horsemeat is 0 and out of date but looking ok meat is 2.

Going to a NHS hospital is 8. (One friend caught MRSA and survived, one caught C Diff and died - Mid Staffs - and another (last year ) had the wrong aftercare instructions after an eye op and nearly lost his eye...)

indeed. When I nearly died from my lung problems just over a year ago, I refused point blank to go into hospital. The very thought of being confined in a closed space with people with some really bad infectious diseases, filthy wards and recycled air, was terrifying. At least any germs in my own home are mygerms and those of my dogs. I was given mega steroids and antibiotics and stayed in bed all day with the windows wide open and my dogs all cuddled up to me and mended myself. I've often wondered about my eventual end of life and if I manage my 3 score and 10, it'll be more than my old Dad did. I wish to die outside with the weather on my face and with any luck I shall manage it as long as no busybody decides I am unable to care for myself and sticks me in a home to exist until I am able to find a way to manage my own death. As I said to my rather brilliant and understanding doctor just after a year ago "there is more to life than just being alive". He was also told that should he still be my doc' when I decide to end my life, under no circumstances is he to resuscitate me. Given that I know the time of year I shall likely die, and what will cause my death, I am determined that the time will be of my own choosing, when living becomes too unpleasant. Rather than when a strange doctor who doesn't know me, decides to allow me to slowly starve to death with my body screaming for water, over the space of days. I wouldn't wish that death on my worst enemy. hmmm another thread topic?

 

[Dishmop]

Two horses in a field....


one says...

Hey.... Shergar.....


You told me they'd never findus.


and just what are these horse carrots they've been feeding us?

 

[Skyhook]

On a risk basis of 0 to 10 where 10 is high, I rate eating horsemeat is 0 and out of date but looking ok meat is 2.

And the risk of eating something which doesn't contain what it says, and therefore could contain just about anything, eg condemned meat?

No, I don't know either.