Neigh, lad!!

[ahinton]

it seems that the meat trade is up to all sorts of tricks, and has been for a long time.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/maeve-dineen-unwelcome-return-to-spotlight-for-the-great-survivor-goodman-28959092.html

Stick to courgettes and nice veggies, I would.....

You might but it's far from obvious how you'd avoid this kind of thing by so doing. So far, the scandal concerns misdescription arising from dishonest and possibly criminal behaviour rather than any identified health risks and these will doubtless all get investigated once they're revealed, but what makes you think that misdescription cannot occur in principle with your "courgettes and nice veggies"? The whole food labelling charade doesn't much affect me because I buy very little processed food; when you buy fresh meat, especially from a retailer who knows and, if pushed, could pretty much prove where it all came from (and it's often mainly locally produced in such cases), you stand a far better chance of knowing what you're getting - for example, there's a butchery in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, where the fellow in charge claims not to have known each animal personally but to know all the producers personally, to know where the animals have been reared and on what kind of diet and all the relevant details of age, slaughter and the rest and, should he ever decide to sell horse meat, I have no doubt that it would not only be labelled as such but he'd know just where the horses originated and all their history. There's no shortage of other butcheries and farm shops in Herefordshire that can make the same claims.

When you buy fresh fruit and vegetables in store rather than online you can see what you're getting but, in some supermarkets, you can only hope that you're being told truthfully or can find out where they came from or when they were delivered; food miles for most fresh fruit & veg these days are, mercifully, far less of an issue than was once the case, but I've still seen Scottish, Dutch and Spanish produce on sale on occasions when local produce could have taken its place.

The thing to do if you're worried about all this is not so much to avoid meat but to avoid packaged food as far as possible and buy and eat fresh; it often works out cheaper in any case. And with no disrespect intended towards Waitrose, it's almost always better to shop at a market than a supermarket for fresh produce if you can find one.

[MrGongGong]

When you buy fresh fruit and vegetables in store rather than online you can see what you're getting but, in some supermarkets, you can only hope that you're being told truthfully or can find out where they came from or when they were delivered; food miles for most fresh fruit & veg these days are, mercifully, far less of an issue than was once the case,

?
Apart from all the Peruvian asparagus etc etc

I would rather buy my horse from Kezie or these folk

http://www.exoticmeats.co.uk/index.php

[Anna]

It seems, from some reports, that Italian and Polish criminal/mafia involvement is the source of horse being sold as beef. The worrying thing is that no tests were carried out for phenylbutazone (horses which have had veterinary treatment with this drug are not allowed to enter the food chain) and also it appears the source of the majority of horsemeat came from Romania, which has been subjected to export restrictions due to the prevalence of the viral disease equine infectious anaemia in the country (I'm not saying this virus poses a threat to humans, merely that the horsemeat could come from horses who have died from this virus) I've knowingly eaten horse and have no qualms or sentimentality about it being eaten as long at it's clearly labelled as such and has, as British beef does, complete traceability. Having worked in the farming (beef and sheep) sphere since BSE and then Foot & Mouth, the passports, cattle movements, six day rule, barcodes, etc., that British farmers are subject to means all British beef is traceable from farm to abattoir to processing. What is worrying farmers here is a possible backlash against beef in general as evidenced by vox pops on various tv reports of people vowing never to touch beef mince again ....

My hope is that people will turn away from processed food, start buying again from their local butcher (perhaps start to make their own burgers?!), and question where the meat they are purchasing from supermarkets is from, the cheap pigmeat in supermarkets is generally from Poland, the conditions in which the animals are raised are appalling, yet UK pig farmers have to comply strictly to EU legislation it appears Polish pig producers do not, hence UK pork is more expensive and many of them are being forced out of business.

[Mr Pee]

[Nick Armstrong]

Not sure I should be encouraging ...unsavoury language, but still:

[EdgeleyRob]

I was never keen on the lasagne,this is my favourite.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I was never keen on the lasagne,this is my favourite.

[mangerton]

Not sure I should be encouraging ...unsavoury language, but still:

Well, quite. There should be an apostrophe in " dogs' ". We expect you as a host to uphold these standards.

[Nick Armstrong]

Well, quite. There should be an apostrophe in " dogs' ". We expect you as a host to uphold these standards.

Shocking, wasn't it!

[teamsaint]

You really don't know whether to laugh or cry over this stuff.

[kernelbogey]

Well, quite. There should be an apostrophe in " dogs' ". We expect you as a host to uphold these standards.

Not to mention the position of the apostrophe, otherwise it could be a matter for Trading Standards.

[Nick Armstrong]

Definitive evidence from France that eating horse-meat has no adverse side-effects.

(NB: make sure your volume is set LOW before playing!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUoVC0Okl8Y

[ahinton]

?
Apart from all the Peruvian asparagus etc etc

Er, no; that stuff's grown in Herefordshire and Worcestershire as well and, since some of it's done in polytunnels to try to overcome the seasonality problem, you still don't have to go buy the Peruvian stuff, despite the fact that this is all that's on offer at the supermarkets most of the time except during a very small seasonal window of time.

[MrGongGong]

When I go to the supermarket I see loads of stuff that has been imported from all over the place
I don't think there's less than there used to be at all ..............

Asparagus should come from the East not Borsetshire whatever next

[mangerton]

Not to mention the position of the apostrophe, otherwise it could be a matter for Trading Standards.

Yes, that did occur to me. I think I was being optimistic, but then again, perhaps I wasn't.