Horse meat in the UK

[rocketeer]

Horse meat in our burgers.

Ok this could be old news to some but we are told some burgers in the UK contain horse meat. Not a big problem with me but if I pay for beef burgers I dont expect horse....or do I.
Packaging reads ingredients: beef, wheat etc but on test were found to contain 29% horse meat. If I were aware of this I would still buy them, but it is a little unfair not to include these ingredients, indeed the reports also came to conclude that pork was also present. Again not a problem for me, but what if I were Jewish,Muslim or another culture where pig meat is forbidden.
I cant see a problem with horse meat especially in these days when meat is so expensive but lots of people keep going on about our relationship with horses, 'nobel animals' deserve a better fate than this they cry. MY mother lived through WWII and even in the UK horse meat was often on the plate, also whale meat, rabbit and good old offal.
Anyone here have a problem with horse meat?
John

 

[Shangas]

As I recall, horse meat was served during WWII in America AND the U.K., due to meat-rationing.

 

[Nick D]

The Anglophone world in particular has an aversion to eating horses, but they're traditional fare in other places (France and Italy, for example). The pork is more worrying, besides not being kosher or halal some people have a serious allergy to it, my wife included. Generally we buy our meat from a butcher, though, and never from Tesco.

I wouldn't mind trying horse, personally, but I'd rather have a horse steak or something like that.

 

[Blackadder]

I do occasionally savour a dish of horse sashimi but then I am from a country, many foreigners think where ppl eat almost anything. We even joke about that ourselves- If a land animal walks with four limbs and with its back towards the sky, you can eat it.

 

[tuppence]

I read about this in our newspaper. Didn't they have to take out a full page ad to apologise ?

I watched a show a few years ago, It was immigrants experiences coming to Australia. There was one lady (not sure which country she came from) who went passed a pet store window and saw a big horse meat steak in the window, meant for pet food, but she took it home and had the best meal she'd had for a long time. It was similar with a Chinese immigrant, as a boy he was sent to the fish markets to collect the stuff the Australians threw away. Things like squid, which most of us eat now a days was just thrown away. It's amazing how more diverse our diets have become.

 

[MisterCairo]

If you market something as beef, it should be beef. Anything else is fraud, regardless of the culinary/religious/allergy issues of the purchaser.

For the record, horses are for riding, not eating or wearing!

There was an episode of MASH on that subject, best episode ever.

 

[LizzieMaine]

As I recall, horse meat was served during WWII in America AND the U.K., due to meat-rationing.

It was known here as "New Jersey Beefsteak," and was common on the black market. Up until the sixties or so horsemeat was also the dominant ingredient in commercial dog food.

 

[MisterCairo]

Here's a twist on mis-identified meat - NO meat!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/03/01/wrd-iceland-horsemeat-meat-pie.html

 

[Edward]

Mn, I keep wanting to try horseburger (love wearing horse too!), but alas they keep withdrawing them soon as it's spotted.

That Iceland story is hilarious!

 

[MisterCairo]

"It is some kind of vegetable matter".

Even a vegan would, I suspect, be turned off by such a description!

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Here's a twist on mis-identified meat - NO meat!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/03/01/wrd-iceland-horsemeat-meat-pie.html

[video=youtube;1BAN_si8Us8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BAN_si8Us8[/video]