Posted on 02/27/2013 3:18:47 PM PST by nickcarraway
Europe’s scandal over horse meat hidden in beef products -- including recalls of Nestle ravioli and Birds Eye chili con carne -- has renewed questions about whether Americans unwittingly could be eating equine products as well.
U.S. Department of Agriculture regulators say it’s highly unlikely that beef adulterated with horse meat could make it to the nation’s dinner plates because no domestic suppliers currently slaughter horses and the agency has strict labeling and inspection standards for imported meat. But agency officials also acknowledge privately that species testing for meat imported into the U.S. is performed typically only when there’s a reason to question a shipment.
And a Florida company that supplies the only validated tests for horse meat in food has been slammed with nearly 1,000 requests in recent weeks for its $500 kits -- including orders from major U.S. meat producers. “It’s becoming a little hectic,” said Natalie Rosskopf, administrative director of Elisa Technologies Inc. of Gainesville. “There was no call for horse testing a month ago. Nothing.”
(Excerpt) Read more at vitals.nbcnews.com ...
Mr Ed is goin down if the republicans force Obama’s sequester.
How do ya like them apples Willburrr?
There’s a lot to know about this... And reporters will probably get most of it wrong. The horse meat scandal in Europe has to do, in part, with meat imported from Mexico, Canada and the U.S. Some of the mexican horse meat is from American horses transported for slaughter.
A major issue with North American horse meat is that it is often high in drugs and chemicals that aren’t allowed in meat intended for human consumption. That’s because in North America horses aren’t typically raised as livestock for their meat, like cows. Horses here are raised as companion animals... work animals... race horses... Anything but meat animals. Meds are commonly given to them for any number of good reasons and there is no tracking system for horses over their lifetime. But they’re also not supposed to be finding their way into the meat markets either. But they are... And in Europe where there -is- a large market for horse meat, there’s the additional complication that horse meat is being quietly substituted for other meat in many products without be labeled as such.
And that, of course, is unethical and should be punished. But am I wrong to think that much of this scandal is emotional? I mean, if, for example, I really liked Ikea meatballs, it wouldn't bother me a bit to find out they had horsemeat in them.
If there is so much horse meat in the U.K./Europe bing sold as beef, why wasn’t the industry noticing a price hit?
Bingo on the emotional response. You can’t eat Silver fer chrissakes.
Label it correctly and lets eat!
I didn’t know that there was so much horse meat available as to be so widespread.
Why not just start selling it like they were near the end of the Vietnam war, when meat shortages arose.
Sure. There’s nothing empirically wrong with horse meat as food, any more than dog meat. But just because there is an emotional component to a thing doesn’t mean the argument has no value either. I was of the opinion that horse meat is just another meat product, for a time, but I’m coming to another point of view on that. Horses raised as meat animals are one thing... But I think sending working and companion animals off to slaughter is a failure on our part to hold up our end of a bargain.
Many of us have had a great dog, even a few great dogs, in our lifetime. When they age, we try to make their final years as comfortable as possible... Because they’ve earned it. When they die, if we can we find a good spot to bury them... Because we valued their companionship. They earned it. We don’t— ever— just take our old dog down to the local Korean restaurant and sell them by weight.
Same with horses. Animals we care for as working and companion animals... Have I think a different implied contract than other animals raised for their meat. The deal is that they serve us in exchange for trust in us to take care of them. When they’re too old to work or carry a rider there’s nothing wrong with still honoring that contract with a comfortable retirement in a nice grassy field. There is something wrong, I think, with shoving them up in to a trailer bound for a slaughterhouse in Mexico. We asked a lot of them and didn’t finish our part of the deal.
Yah, it’s an emotional play, but it isn’t wrong.
Ping...
Well-said. Fair enough.
I don’t understand why anyone would get upset by getting horse meat!
stick your emotion where the sun doesn’t shine!!!
If you wern’t supposed to eat them they wouldn’t grow meat!!!
Heheh... OK-fine by me. If you have cats, they look at you the same way. :-)
Ever notice how gullible the bureaucrats are when it comes to waving pieces of paper? Like when peace in our time was declared?
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