Fast Food Nastiness

[LFJ]

I guess that would make sense if the meat was from people's riding horses that weren't ever intended as food. This is verging on roadkill.

A little while back a Chinese restaurant in the States got closed down because customers, while enjoying their meal, witnessed them wheeling a trashcan from the front door back to the kitchen, with bloody deer legs sticking out of it.

In defense, the owner said it was only going to be served to his family.

Makes you wonder, if they'd rather take home roadkill than eat what they serve at their own restaurant...

[sanjuro_ronin]

A little while back a Chinese restaurant in the States got closed down because customers, while enjoying their meal, witnessed them wheeling a trashcan from the front door back to the kitchen, with bloody deer legs sticking out of it.

In defense, the owner said it was only going to be served to his family.

Makes you wonder, if they'd rather take home roadkill than eat what they serve at their own restaurant...

Deer isn't roadkill ( though of course it COULD be), many people hunt deer for the meat.

[LFJ]

Deer isn't roadkill ( though of course it COULD be), many people hunt deer for the meat.

Nah, it was one they actually hit on the road and decided to take back to the restaurant to feed the family.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow...160225525.html

[Kellen Bassette]

Nah, it was one they actually hit on the road and decided to take back to the restaurant to feed the family.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow...160225525.html

Where I'm from people take roadkill deer all the time, as long as its' fresh and the guts didn't get busted up to bad. I hit a deer with a car once, and called the state trooper to come tag it...before he got there, 6 different people stopped and asked if they could have the deer.

[rett]

The road here has a lot of wildlife accidents with moose, deer and wild boar. Each stretch has a designated roadkill volunteer who gets called out, since you rarely see cops out here. They also have to track injured animals that limp away and shoot them.

The owner of the adjacent land has first dibs on any carcasses (apart from any humans of course). They often take it for food if it's in okay shape.

By roadkill I'm thinking more squished armadillos or possums in the sun. Or badgers.

[David Jamieson]

I don't know about you guys, but 2013 and the upcoming 50th year of my life is kind of pointing me towards a vegetarian diet.

Should fit in with all the esoteric bullshit I'm into as well.

PS, I haven't had a burger king hamburger since the late 80's. I haven't even been inside a burger king in 25 years! holy crap!

[sanjuro_ronin]

I tried going vegetarian years ago.
Couldn't make it the full year !
I was working out a lot, MA AND ST and I just didn't have the gains or energy as I did when I ate meats and such.
I had to supplement too much to get the protein I needed.
I lost weight easier that's for sure.

[Punch.HeadButt]

I went kind of vegetarian for a little over two months ("kind of" in that I kept eggs in the diet for protein). It really wasn't that bad, the only reason I abandoned it was lack of variety...I'm no chef, and the only way I can cook vegetables consistently is steaming them. I just got tired of eating the same stuff over and over again.

I went to one of KFM's banquets a few years back when the Abbot was visiting, so every course was vegetarian...and delicious. If I had regular access to THAT kind of vegetarian food, I would quit meat in a heartbeat!


....possibly with occasional lapses to enjoy a hamburger every once in a while....I friggin' love (real) hamburgers.

[GeneChing]

Makes me dread to think all the things I ate in China over the years.....

In China, I ate all sorts of crazy meats, but you knew what is was because it is tradition to leave the heads on. That's why they do that. Also, the exotic meats were served like a delicacy. In China, BK would probably be able to charge more for horse burgers. In the US and UK, meat eaters are timid about that sort of thing. Put it a nugget so I don't know it's an animal.

OK, that's a dig, but when you get served dog (or turtle or cat or horse) in China, they tell you very clearly that it's a special treat.

[Syn7]

I was a vegematarian for over 15 years and only recently ate meat again. I only went back to meat to make a point to someone and always assumed I would go back to no meat. Because it had been soooo long since I ate meat it was like a new flavor adventure that I liked at first. But now I'm back to the point where all that shit seems gross to me. Maybe if I lived on a farm or got my meat from a local source where I knew that they were raised and fed right and that I'm getting the meat w/o all the lovely extras we find in the grocery store. It's so bad. American meat isn't even legal to sell in Europe. Vegetarians aren't really missing anything. If you take all the flavours in the world you will see that meat is only a very VERY small percentage of your options.

From an environmental and cost perspective(as a whole) being vegetarian is cheaper. Meat producers are one of the worst polluters in the world. The amount of resources it takes to make such a small amount of meat is insane. And I mean INSANE! Beyond irresponsible and down right stupid.

[GeneChing]

You bring up an intriguing point as always, Syn7. Now I'm wondering if the amount of resource it takes to raise cows for meat is significantly higher than what it would take to raise horses. This whole debacle has come about by cost-cutting greed (like most debacles) but is horsemeat really that much cheaper? This article says "slightly less".

How the Horsemeat Sneaked Into the Lasagna
By Carol Matlack on February 11, 2013

Companies Mentioned

TESO

Tesco Corp
$12.18 USD
-0.12
-0.97%
WMT

Wal-Mart Stores Inc
$71.32 USD
-0.15
-0.22%
BKW

Burger King Worldwide Inc
$16.7 USD
0.17
1.02%


It’s considered one of the European Union’s great successes: the establishment of a single market in which 27 countries trade freely among themselves in everything from steel to meat. The meat, however, appears to include some horsemeat labeled as beef.

Merchants in Britain, France, Ireland, and Sweden are pulling frozen meals and hamburger patties off their shelves after tests showed the presence of horse DNA in what was supposed to be beef. While regulators say there’s no risk to human health, the case underscores the challenge of monitoring the supply of food to the EU’s 500 million consumers.

Horsemeat found in frozen lasagna in Britain, for example, apparently came from Romania and passed through intermediaries in four other countries before reaching the shelves of stores owned by Tesco (TESO), Wal-Mart’s (WMT) Asda, and other chains. In a separate case, Burger King’s (BKW) British unit recently found traces of horse DNA in burgers supplied by an Irish company that had imported the meat from Poland.

The suspicion is that unscrupulous suppliers have substituted horsemeat, which costs slightly less than beef. But the large number of intermediaries makes it hard to figure out who was responsible. “We need to get out of this fog,” French Agriculture Minister Stéphane Le Foll said in an interview today on RTL radio. “That way, we can establish traceability.”

French authorities say that frozen “beef” meals supplied to supermarkets in Britain, France, and Sweden were prepared in a Luxembourg factory owned by a French company, which bought the meat from another French supplier. That supplier, in turn, says it bought the meat from a Cypriot trader, who had subcontracted the order to a Dutch trader, who obtained the meat from a Romanian slaughterhouse. So far, none of the suppliers has admitted knowingly selling horsemeat.

Adding to the difficulty of untangling the supply chain is the fact that food-safety regulations in the EU are established and enforced by national governments. “For processed foods, there is no global overview on where the food comes from,” says Monique Boyens, director general of the European Consumer Organization in Brussels.

What’s more, Boyens says, Europe’s financial crisis has led to “a cut in financial resources and human resources” devoted to food inspection and sampling. With vast quantities of foodstuffs passing freely across national borders, “if there is one weak link in supervision, it can go wrong,” she says. The horsemeat scandal “was a problem waiting to happen.”

EU officials, though, contend that the system works pretty well. “The simple fact that within a few hours or 48 hours we can already have a first idea of what happened, that shows that the European traceability works,” Fréderic Vincent, the EU spokesman for health and consumers, said at a press conference in Brussels today. “We can trace who has done what. If in the whole process there has been some fraud, the member states will have to take measures at the legal level.”

Goyens of the European Consumer Organization says the response has been far from speedy. “The first elements of the scandal were known in mid-January in Ireland,” when horsemeat was found in meat that local suppliers had obtained from Poland, she says. “If this had been a public health issue, it would have been a catastrophe.”

Although many consumers in Britain and Ireland are repelled by the idea, eating horsemeat is relatively common on the Continent. The EU’s agriculture directorate estimates that Europeans consume 80,000 metric tons of horsemeat annually, about one-third of which is imported from outside the bloc.

With reporting by Rudy Ruitenberg of Bloomberg News

[GeneChing]

I think the bottom line here is that the meat industry is still really dirty. The Jungle was written in 1906 and while some regulation arose in its wake, over a century later, that book is still relevant.

Battle over blame after horse meat found in beef products
From Josh Levs and Per Nyberg
updated 5:22 AM EST, Mon February 11, 2013

(CNN) -- High-stakes lawsuits, overlapping investigations and a bitter battle over blame are spreading across Europe in the wake of a scandal that has rocked the meat industry.

Horse meat was discovered in products that are supposed to be 100% beef, sold in Sweden, the United Kingdom and France.

On Sunday, a major company under scrutiny called one of its suppliers a "villain" responsible for the fraud. The supplier, in turn, insisted it was "fooled" by a subsupplier.

While authorities say there is no immediate cause for health concerns, the discovery was a new shock to an industry already reeling from a bombshell last month when Irish investigators found horse and pig DNA in numerous hamburger products.

The blame chain
Europe deals with horse meat scandal

Swedish food producer Findus has been a focus of the uproar since it announced Thursday that it had withdrawn its lasagna from stores as a precaution. The products were pulled Monday after French supplier Comigel raised concerns about the type of meat that was used, Findus Sweden said.

Findus said a letter from Comigel dated February 2 informed Findus that the contamination may date back to August 2012.

Horsemeat found in hamburgers in Britain and Ireland

Findus is only one of several companies that receive products from Comigel. Others include Axfood, Coop and ICA, which have recalled some meat products in Sweden, and Aldi, which has pulled some products from shelves in Britain.

Six big French retailers -- Auchan, Casino, Carrefour, Cora, Picard and Monoprix -- said Sunday that they were recalling lasagne and other products.

Findus Nordic, which oversees Findus throughout the Nordic region, said it has begun legal action against Comigel and its subsuppliers.

"We are only at the beginning of our legal process. Comigel will end up in a lot of legal processes going forward, I imagine," Findus Nordic CEO Jari Latvanen said Sunday in an interview with CNN. "Comigel is the villain."

Comigel has not responded to CNN's requests for comment. The company did not answer its phones when CNN called repeatedly, and did not respond to an e-mail request for comment. Neither did CEO Erick Lehagre.

But Lehagre told French news agency Agence France-Presse on Sunday that his company had been "fooled" by a French supplier. "We were victims," he said, according to AFP.

Comigel apparently took its website down, posting a sign that it is "under construction." Previously, the site described the company as offering a wide array of products through partners, including major European retailers.

Criss-crossing investigations

Probes are under way in France, Sweden, and Britain. The supply chain being studied includes still more countries.

France's consumer affairs minister, Benoit Hamon, ordered an immediate investigation and said results will be available by midweek.

In a statement, Hamon said a provider in Luxembourg and traders in Cyprus and the Netherlands are part of the chain being probed.

The Swedish National Food Agency announced Sunday that it is reporting Findus to police, which is the standard course of action when products have been sold with the wrong labels.

British police are investigating as well.

British officials held an emergency meeting Saturday in London. Participants agreed "meaningful results" must be achieved by Friday, UK Food Standards Agency spokesman Brad Smythe said.

Officials discussed what tests are possible, what laboratory capacity is needed, and what can be done to protect consumer confidence, he said.

The evidence so far suggests "either criminal activity or gross negligence," Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said, adding that "more bad news" could come.

UK food businesses have been ordered to test all processed beef products for authenticity and report back to the authorities by Friday.

"I am determined that we get to the bottom of this and that any wrongdoing discovered is punished," Paterson said in a statement.

Prime Minister David Cameron weighed in Friday on Twitter. "This is completely unacceptable -- this isn't about food safety but about proper food labeling and confidence in retailers," he wrote.

Legal action under way

Latvanen credits his company with uncovering "a serious case of fraud."

"What has happened with Comigel is a crime, a scandal," he said in an interview with CNN.

Burger King finds horse meat at European supplier

While Findus has begun legal action in Sweden, Findus France previously said it will file a legal complaint Monday against a Romanian business that is part of the supply chain. It did not name the business publicly.

"There are two victims in this affair: Findus and the consumer," Findus France said in a statement.

The British arm of Findus said it is considering legal action against suppliers as well. Early results of an internal investigation "strongly suggest" the horse meat contamination of a beef lasagna product "was not accidental," the company said.

Tests showed up to 100% horse meat

Aldi said tests on random samples demonstrated that the withdrawn products contained between 30% and 100% horse meat.

"This is completely unacceptable and like other affected companies, we feel angry and let down by our supplier. If the label says beef, our customers expect it to be beef."

Samples of the affected Findus lasagna contained between 60% and 100% horse meat, according to UK and Irish food safety inspectors.

In January, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland found that 10 out of 27 hamburger products it analyzed in a study contained horse DNA, while 23 of them -- or 85% -- tested positive for pig DNA.

In nine out of the 10 burger samples, the horse DNA was found at very low levels, the inspectors said. But in one sample from Tesco, Britain's largest retailer, the horse meat accounted for about 29% of the burger.

Tesco apologized and vowed to make sure it never happens again.

Irish officials blamed ingredients from Poland.

Concerns about a veterinary drug

While horse meat is not itself a food safety hazard, food inspectors are concerned it may contain the veterinary drug phenylbutazone, or "bute," commonly used to treat horses.

Meat from animals treated with phenylbutazone may pose a risk to human health and is not allowed to enter the food chain as it may pose a risk to human health.

Findus has been ordered to test the lasagna withdrawn from shelves in the United Kingdom for the drug's presence.

The revelations have revolted many meat eaters in the United Kingdom, where horse meat is generally considered taboo, although it is commonly eaten in neighboring France, as well as countries including China, Russia, Kazakhstan and Italy.

The discovery of pig DNA in beef products is of particular concern to Jews and Muslims, whose dietary laws forbid the consumption of pork products. Jewish dietary laws also ban the eating of horse meat.

The UK Justice Ministry confirmed last week that a number of meat pies and similar items supplied to prisons in England and Wales were labeled and served as halal -- prepared in compliance with Islamic dietary law -- but contained traces of pork DNA, the Food Standards Agency said.

Horse meat is not commonly eaten in the United States, but the country does export it to Canada and Mexico. Congress passed a bill in November 2011 that lifted a 5-year-old ban on the slaughter of horses for meat in the United States.

[Lucas]

I'm tempted to go to burger king and to specifically ask for a horse burger.

[Syn7]

You bring up an intriguing point as always, Syn7. Now I'm wondering if the amount of resource it takes to raise cows for meat is significantly higher than what it would take to raise horses. This whole debacle has come about by cost-cutting greed (like most debacles) but is horsemeat really that much cheaper? This article says "slightly less".

Yeah, well, I'm an intriguing motherfucker like that....!!!


The cost benefit analysis seems insignificant on a one by one basis. But when you get into a billion units, even half a cent is VERY significant.

Money is the issue. As long as people are willing to pay premium prices for meat, the producers will do anything they can get away with to maximise their financial potential. Infact in some cases they are bound by law to do so.

It's a very rotten industry. Worse than oil and firearms combined. Ofcourse all three are connected in so many ways. Think of all the oil burned to produce and get meat to everyone everywhere.

As far as the diff between horses and cows, I think most of the costs to produce meat would be the same for both. If horses were valued as food like cows were in N America, I'm sure the price differences would be negligible. In a few years we would have these massive wide horses. I mean, originally cows didn't look anything like they do now. Husbandry did most of that work, but genetics is changing the game now. It's scary how little we know about the affects of all this yet we use it to sustain our lives. Is it just me or does that seem profoundly stupid? Look at how archaic mid century psychiatry looks now. Like OMG I can't believe they prescribed that shit! And all the shock therapy and other weird shit they did. I mean, I'm glad the experimented and all and it got us to where we are. It's just the widespread acceptance of new and virtually untested methods. We shouldn't accept things because we are told it's all good.


Lucas,

I guarantee that the employees have been briefed and have been told how to respond to any horse meat inquiries.

[GeneChing]

Yeah, well, I'm an intriguing motherfucker like that....!!!

I'm sure it is a direct result of that rail of salt incurring brain damage.

In a few years we would have these massive wide horses.

Makes ya hungry just lookin at it, don't it?