Posted on 02/09/2013 1:10:22 PM PST by AtlasStalled
Organized crime including the Italian Mafia is "suspected of playing a major role in the horsemeat scandal that has seen supermarket shelves cleared of a series of products and triggered concerns about the contamination of the UK's food chain" as reported by Jamie Doward for The Observer: "experts within the horse slaughter industry have told the Observer there is evidence that both Polish and Italian mafia gangs are running multimillion-pound scams to substitute horsemeat for beef during food production."
Last July anti-Mafia writer Roberto Saviano alleged organized crime increasingly has entered the gastronomic sector with inferior products, and said it's "a sad fate for Italian excellence" as reported by Barbie Latza Nadeau for the Daily Beast.
According to a January 2012 parliament report the Mafia in Italy "controls agricultural and food businesses worth 12.5 billion euros ($16 billion) a year, or 5.6 percent of all criminal operations in the country" as reported by Reuters: "organised crime has spread its involvement through the entire food chain from acquisition of farmland to production, from transport to supermarkets."
In addition to flooding the food market with inferior products the Mafia further is muscling out its legitimate rivals. The wise guys are the prime suspects in a sabotage attack last December against a Tuscan vineyard where 80,000 litres of its prized wine "was poured down the drain" as reported by Nick Pisa for the Daily Mail: "raiders broke into the cellars smashing through armoured glass which house the famous Brunello di Montalcino and targeted barrels from the 2007 through to 2012 vintage and then simply turned on the taps."
CC
I wonder what other kind of “meat” might be mixed in with the horsemeat, if you get my drift.
And if they used racehorses which “disappeared” they can collect on their insurance policies, too. Mobsters always know how to extract the maximum value from their assets.
I wonder what other kind of “meat” might be mixed in with the horsemeat, if you get my drift.
So maybe we’re eating Jimmy Hoffa!? Perish (no pun intended) the thought!
Are you saying we should avoid Mrs. Lovett's brand lasagna?
CC
Belmont “steaks”
Gee....and here I thought it was just a misdirected “burger shipment” from the McDonald’s distribution center.
Overlooking all cannibalism comments upthread, is there anything specifically wrong with eating horsemeat? Not that I’m actively thinking of doing it, but for those that have aready eaten it in the food products they’ve bought.
Or is it mostly just a sacial taboo?
Wrong! BHO and MO say: “It’s Bush’s fault!”
since horse meat is usually more expensive than beef....what would br the Mafiaa’s take on all this?????
Not at all. Horsemeat products -usually in sausage form- can be found all over Europe. Quite tasty, actually, though that may be due more to the seasoning (as in most sausage products) than the meat itself. If anything, I'd be more worried about the source and processing than the type of meat (beef, pork, venison, poultry, horse...) itself.
Good one!
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