Jump to content

Horsemeat, contamination scandal ?


tj
 Share

Recommended Posts

[quote user="Rabbie"][quote user="Ivor Nidea"]

Well I reckon you have more courage than me as Ikea would not be any sort of place that I would ever dream of going too for food. The one and only time I have ever been in one I only saw furniture. The more that developes over the meat scandal just confirms that we get what we deserve.

If I ever had to serve up a meal for somebody I like to think I could do better than a ball made from sludge blasted by high pressure from animal bones with a side dish of powdered smash.

[/quote]Ivor, all the IKEA shops in the uK have a separate Swedish Food shop which we patronise because there are no other outlets near us. Where else do you think we can buy swedish crispbread, cheese etc. BTW Meatballs are not served with mashed potatoes but with boiled ones unmashed so no sign of smash there[:)]

However I do enjoy your posts even when obviously ill-informed so keep on posting

[/quote]

That's because I live in a very old time warp where nothing of the modern world apears very relevant. When I was a kid the only exotic food we had was liver sausage or Shippams fish paste in very small jars, for all I know they both might well have been whale blubber. But at least a carrot will always be a carrot whether it grew up in Sweden or somebody's allotment.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 77
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

So the flat-pack furniture warehouse has withdrawn its meat-balls and something called a Wiener sausage (must be a spelling error there?). I am pretty sure that it was an oversight on the part of the PR department not to mention that customers to their furniture store can continue to be reassured that sausages and meat-balls will contain only the finest cuts of Swedish meat abbatoirs can re-cycle. In fact it wouldn't surprise me to know that in every flat pack of balls there is a list of ingredients in fifteen different languages.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not wishing to point the finger at any one particular individual but rather just a general observation but it seems there is a little bit of self righteousness in the thread from those who never eat pre packed meals frozen, tinned etc meals. I am glad that some have the time to cook meals from scratch using only the best ingredients but as I said before not all of us have that time.

I was thinking about fish yesterday, both 'fresh' and frozen. Some fish, especially when whole and in some cases already cut in to parts are obvious to people what they are. Other fish, both 'fresh', frozen or packaged like smoked salmon etc could not always be what they seem. I once bought some pre packaged smoked salmon but didn't notice till I got home and read the label that it was actually trout. It looked similar to me at the time I bought it. There also several types of white sea fish that once cut up look the same. Then of course you get on to things like fish fingers etc and what you think you have bought may be something quite different. I suspect that there would not be so much of an objection if what was sold as cod turned out to be hake (or something else) be it 'fresh' or otherwise. Quite frankly from what I have read I would be more worried about fish seeing how much chemicals have been dumped in the sea especially by third world countries.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bit like women, really Q; you don't know what has been slipped into the mix until you have looked really closely and the packers are experts at hiding that with ornate packaging! Problem is that you often have to buy before full examination and the goods are impossible to return without huge penalties.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Ivor Nidea"]So the flat-pack furniture warehouse has withdrawn its meat-balls and something called a Wiener sausage (must be a spelling error there?). I am pretty sure that it was an oversight on the part of the PR department not to mention that customers to their furniture store can continue to be reassured that sausages and meat-balls will contain only the finest cuts of Swedish meat abbatoirs can re-cycle. In fact it wouldn't surprise me to know that in every flat pack of balls there is a list of ingredients in fifteen different languages.[/quote]Ivor, Once again you keep an old pedant like me happy by posting without knowing your facts[:)]

Wiener is not mispelled - it is the Swedish name for what in the UK we call a Frankfurter. It means coming from Wien(Vienna).  In fact you will find that dachshunds are nicknamed Wiener dogs in America.

I have also checked on a packet of ikea meatballs  The ingredients are listed in 16 languages so you were close but no cigar[:D]

So remember check yiour facts before posting[:)]

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Rabbie"]

[quote user="Ivor Nidea"]So the flat-pack furniture warehouse has withdrawn its meat-balls and something called a Wiener sausage (must be a spelling error there?). I am pretty sure that it was an oversight on the part of the PR department not to mention that customers to their furniture store can continue to be reassured that sausages and meat-balls will contain only the finest cuts of Swedish meat abbatoirs can re-cycle. In fact it wouldn't surprise me to know that in every flat pack of balls there is a list of ingredients in fifteen different languages.[/quote]Ivor, Once again you keep an old pedant like me happy by posting without knowing your facts[:)]

Wiener is not mispelled - it is the Swedish name for what in the UK we call a Frankfurter. It means coming from Wien(Vienna).  In fact you will find that dachshunds are nicknamed Wiener dogs in America.

I have also checked on a packet of ikea meatballs  The ingredients are listed in 16 languages so you were close but no cigar[:D]

So remember check yiour facts before posting[:)]

 

[/quote]

Oh Rabbie, bless you [:D] Just as you bumped into the dogs dingly dangles previously, you also missed the wiener one, if you ask Wooly he will explain. In future I shall try to make them a little more obvious.  Perhaps a little more tuning is required on my part. Actually for years in our family the chipolata has been know as LBW's and the Frankfurter/Wiener as BBW's.

Thanks for the geography lesson, who would have guessed about Wien being Vienna [Www] Next you'll be telling me you chose your forum name after a sputnik-like vegetable!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Quillan"]

Not wishing to point the finger at any one particular individual but rather just a general observation but it seems there is a little bit of self righteousness in the thread from those who never eat pre packed meals frozen, tinned etc meals. I am glad that some have the time to cook meals from scratch using only the best ingredients but as I said before not all of us have that time.

[/quote]

No need to worry about pointy fingers, I am used to it as I have always been a know-all, so over many years it's water off a ducks back. Think of me as the bloke in the corner of the bar who chips in on every subject as if he has the definitive answer. I have lost count of the number of posts on forums that have come to a shuddering halt whenever I make a post.

Now back to the wider issue on what I am coming to think of as another of my "Zulu Principles." The Horse meat/Obesity scandal.

For Rabbie.  Look up how Jim Slater came to call his book of the same name.

The dobbin issue is the culmination from many years of the proliferation of eating places in the high street.  Nowadays it's impossible to walk many yards without falling into somewhere selling drinks or food and it appears to be almost obligatory to snack or have a meal whenever anybody goes shopping,  a lot of which is consumed without bothering to even sit down to eat or drink.  So is it any wonder that more and more people are obese, or that more children appear to suffer from allergies and have behavioural issues.

As more and more eating and drinking establishments flood our town centres and out of town shopping malls so the relentless drive to be cheaper and tastier than the next place. It's not a question of having the time to cook meals from scratch, or using the best ingredients, it's about what we think of as being important to our own well being.  If you want to eat a slice of "meat" carved from something that looks like an elephants leg, or give your children cans of fizzy drink dreamed up by a chemist in a laboratory then I would suggest they are just a couple of tiny examples from the tip of the huge obesity problem tied in with what goes into ready meals and processed food.

I accept that I maybe have fixed views  about food, which is probably because it has been gained over a very short period in an otherwise longer life as cooking for myself is a relatively new experience. But to my mind food doesn't need to be complicated and simple meals that are healthy enough can be easily made from raw ingredients in less than 30 minutes, which is probably quicker than it takes to get another tattoo or to wait for the take-away to be delivered, probably cheaper as well. If more and more people decided to be self-righteous it might be a start to a healthier life-style with no need to be concerned about processed food .

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Ivor Nidea"]

 

I accept that I maybe have fixed views  about food, which is probably because it has been gained over a very short period in an otherwise longer life as cooking for myself is a relatively new experience. But to my mind food doesn't need to be complicated and simple meals that are healthy enough can be easily made from raw ingredients in less than 30 minutes, which is probably quicker than it takes to get another tattoo or to wait for the take-away to be delivered, probably cheaper as well. If more and more people decided to be self-righteous it might be a start to a healthier life-style with no need to be concerned about processed food .

[/quote]

I can identify with that, whilst I have always cooked for myself it has been ready meals, junk food, processed stuff etc not to mention the take-aways until exactly 2 years ago so I have the benefit of seeing the issue from both sides as it were.

I have been obese all of my adult life except for the last two.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Ivor Nidea"]

No need to worry about pointy fingers, I am used to it as I have always been a know-all, so over many years it's water off a ducks back.[/quote]

You flatter yourself to much.

Obesity has become a big problem over the last 20 to 30 years and has little to do with 'fast food', processed food etc it is to do with poor education and poor politics. Fish and chips and Wimpey bars we around in my youth and neither of them would be considered 'healthy' these days. We always had fish and chips on Fridays and I had a 28" waist till my early 30's but then I also played a lot of very physical sport (rugby, rowing and boxing) and seriously exercised every day.

Previous to Thatcher most schools did approximately six hours of PE and sports per week (2 x 1hr PE lessons and an afternoon of sports). Due to Thatcher allowing schools to sell off sports fields should they wish and a much greater requirement for academic studies it dropped to under two hours per week. More recently a campaign, led by Boris Johnson, has forced to schools to give a minimum of two hours per week as some have been giving as little as 30 minutes. Strangely public schools have, on the whole, carried on with the six hours per week PE and sports plus they actively encourage competitive sports after school. I read in the Guardian a few weeks back that obesity was less amongst public school children than amongst state school children. Game consoles have taken over from kids playing football and other after school activities. This has been encouraged by parents who have been frightened to death by newspaper reports of 'millions' of paedophiles roaming the country. With the exception of the winter months we spent all our school holidays outside either down the rec or in the woods playing from the age of 8 or 9 onwards. Latter on when we were older we used to cycle and camp.

Then, as you might have remembered, there was the issue of Jammie Oliver trying to improve school meals which the kids 'didn't like'. We saw TV coverage of fat mothers throwing fish and chips, McDonald's etc over school fences for the kids to eat. These fat parents are the original victims of these silly government policies. The Labour Party also has to take some of the blame as well. They did nothing to reinstate PE and games to pre Thatcher levels, they allegedly stopped competitive sport and PE was stopped or limited further because of stupid health and safety rules. They had the opportunity to put things right but simply carried on tinkering with education using it as a political football.

We had a balanced diet at school and it included things such as fish fingers and chips but it was limited as part of the diet. There is no direct link between fast food, frozen meals etc and obesity. It only starts to happen when you conjoin them with lack of exercise. Likewise there is no evidence whatsoever that these foods eaten as a regular diet causes people to live short lives, there are actually some claims that it can actually extend your life as the chemicals inside the food preserve the organs longer although I am not personally convinced of this although I do know bodies take longer to decompose due to chemicals in foods eaten. Food is fuel, different foods have different 'octanes', if you take on fuel you have to burn it off, the higher the 'octane' the more activity you have to carry out to burn off the fuel, it's not rocket science. Any food, be it organic and fresh through frozen meals to McDonald's will make you obese if you don't exercise and there are plenty of vegetarians who also eat organic food who are obese to prove that point.

As to children with behavior problems, well in many cases I have come across one does not have to look much further than the parent or parents if they are lucky enough to have both. Children are like fish, they grow intellectually as big as the tank they are in. There are children with mental health problems of course and their problems should not be confused with the more commonly seen behavior problems we see today in the group to which I am referring.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Ivor Nidea"][quote user="Rabbie"]

[quote user="Ivor Nidea"]So the flat-pack furniture warehouse has withdrawn its meat-balls and something called a Wiener sausage (must be a spelling error there?). I am pretty sure that it was an oversight on the part of the PR department not to mention that customers to their furniture store can continue to be reassured that sausages and meat-balls will contain only the finest cuts of Swedish meat abbatoirs can re-cycle. In fact it wouldn't surprise me to know that in every flat pack of balls there is a list of ingredients in fifteen different languages.[/quote]Ivor, Once again you keep an old pedant like me happy by posting without knowing your facts[:)]

Wiener is not mispelled - it is the Swedish name for what in the UK we call a Frankfurter. It means coming from Wien(Vienna).  In fact you will find that dachshunds are nicknamed Wiener dogs in America.

I have also checked on a packet of ikea meatballs  The ingredients are listed in 16 languages so you were close but no cigar[:D]

So remember check yiour facts before posting[:)]

 

[/quote]

Oh Rabbie, bless you [:D] Just as you bumped into the dogs dingly dangles previously, you also missed the wiener one, if you ask Wooly he will explain. In future I shall try to make them a little more obvious.  Perhaps a little more tuning is required on my part. Actually for years in our family the chipolata has been know as LBW's and the Frankfurter/Wiener as BBW's.

Thanks for the geography lesson, who would have guessed about Wien being Vienna [Www] Next you'll be telling me you chose your forum name after a sputnik-like vegetable!

[/quote]Thank you for your blessing for what it's worth. In fact I did understand your remark about the the dog's whatsits.  I just chose to make a not very good joke about it but then I failed to realise that you wouldn't get that.

I actually chose my forum name by accident as I had just had a phone call from the wife (now widow) of a very good friend who always called me Rabbie  to tell me he was dying of cancer. So it is done partly in his memory and has nothing to do with vegetables.

You say in another post that you are a know-all. You seem to be the sort of person that my granny described as "so sharp he'll cut himself" so take care and avoid injury.

I actually agree with you about the benefits of home cooking and our main meal is nearly always cooked from scratch. But I don't claim the moral high ground because of this and sneer at people who buy ready-meals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I see that Flunch has now been tested as serving contaminated beef - not just mixed horse and beef but actually stuff mixed in that should never have gone into the food chain as it was unfit.

I am getting worried about dog food now, rugger the humans, they can cope, but my diggies trust me to put decent bouf in their bowl!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

woolyb said:

I am getting worried about dog food now, rugger the humans, they can

cope, but my diggies trust me to put decent bouf in their bowl!

My doggie was allergic to beef, so she had lamb, what ever it was, it wasn't beef[:D]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Mediaeval times there were superstitious reasons, I think, but they would if hungry; certainly during hard times in the Hundred Years War armies tucked into them. Nowadays, it is the same reason as rabbit - kiddy winkies cant eat Black Beauty or the bunny at the bottom of the garden that we used to dress is baby clothes, then grew out of and neglected til it died of foxitis!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Hoddy"]Does anyone know why we don't usually eat horsemeat in the UK ?

Would I be right in thinking that not much of it is eaten (knowingly) in the USA ?

Hoddy[/quote]

Probably for the same reason we don't see rabbit, game birds, hare, etc, no longer freely available! Far healthier food options but unfortunately society views them all as fluffy, cuddly things!

As for the USA, they have a valuable export market in horsemeat via slaughter houses in Mexico and Canada.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I was at my local butcher yesterday I had meant to ask if they ever got horsemeat. I do not actually believe that legally sold horsemeat would be that much cheaper, it at all cheaper, than beef, but I would happily eat it. At the moment I have a couple of brace of pheasant in the freezer, but not my favourite oiseau, I prefer pidgeon to be honest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Ivor Nidea"]

No need to worry about pointy fingers, I am used to it as I have always been a know-all, so over many years it's water off a ducks back. Think of me as the bloke in the corner of the bar who chips in on every subject as if he has the definitive answer. I have lost count of the number of posts on forums that have come to a shuddering halt whenever I make a post.[/quote]

The problem being the know-all in the corner of the bar usually gets ignored or invited to put a sock in it as in many cases, they are wrong and simply like the sound of their own voice, and the false belief they can command attention.

[quote user="Ivor Nidea"]

Now back to the wider issue on what I am coming to think of as another of my "Zulu Principles." The Horse meat/Obesity scandal.

For Rabbie.  Look up how Jim Slater came to call his book of the same name.

The dobbin issue is the culmination from many years of the proliferation of eating places in the high street.  Nowadays it's impossible to walk many yards without falling into somewhere selling drinks or food and it appears to be almost obligatory to snack or have a meal whenever anybody goes shopping,  a lot of which is consumed without bothering to even sit down to eat or drink.  So is it any wonder that more and more people are obese, or that more children appear to suffer from allergies and have behavioural issues.

[/quote]

Q has already provided a more realistic and substantial response, but I would ask you go back a bit in history and look to when horsemeat was freely available in GB?

Working on your analysis of the situation, by rights there should be no horsemeat available in France, in fact there should be no meat available anywhere as a separate commodity,  as the vast number of shoppers prefer fast food or eating while on the go!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A poor photo sorry, but this was my local horsemeat butcher's stand this morning

[IMG]http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh80/bfb_album/horsemeat_zps583a21c2.jpg[/IMG]

it is one of the most popular..

[IMG]http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh80/bfb_album/chevaline_zps135c8eb3.jpg[/IMG]

more so than the cheese

[IMG]http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh80/bfb_album/cheesestall_zpsacb17cbe.jpg[/IMG]

and greengrocer

[IMG]http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh80/bfb_album/fruitampveg_zpsd6071f0e.jpg[/IMG]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share


×
×
  • Create New...