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| Some of the names involved in the scandal |
There has
been quite the scandal in recent news with horsemeat being found in
misleadingly named "beef" burgers. I won't Shergar coat it - people have been furious
about it. So why the long
faces? Well, many do not view this as a suitable mane course for a stable diet. Personally, I don't think
they will be on sale furlong,
as stores have been saddled with fridges full of burgers,
although some say sales remain stable.
Alright, that's enough horsing
around. Unfortunately I can't promise there will be no more bad puns
throughout this post... there's just neigh way I can resist.
So what actually happened? Well,
in January, Irish food inspectors announced that they had found horsemeat in 'beef' burgers made by firms whose products were sold by UK supermarkets
including Tesco, Aldi and Lidl. Since then companies such as Findus and Nestlé
have recalled products after horse DNA was identified in beef labelled products.
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| One of the horsemeat products |
So why commit such fraud? Well,
because horsemeat is cheaper than other meats in some countries, so there was
an opportunity for financial gain by selling horsemeat as 'beef'. The weird
thing is, on the Continent the price of horsemeat is much higher, being popular
in France and Italy, as well as being widely consumed in China. Yet in the UK
there is generally a more negative attitude towards eating horsemeat. Do us
Brits just not like then idea of munching on black beauty?
But the issue with eating
horsemeat is more complex than a reluctance to nibble on Seabiscuit. Phenylbutazone, known as bute, is
used as a painkiller for horses and has been found in meat in France. Bute is
used by humans to treat ankylosing spondylitis, a severe
form of arthritis which affects the back. The possible but rare side effect of
bute is aplastic anaemia, a bone marrow disorder which affects one in 30,000
users.
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| Phenylbutazone or 'bute' |
However, health experts have emphasized that this whole horsemeat scandal is a
matter of fraud more than safety, as the levels of bute detected are said to
pose very little risk to human health. In fact, in order
to get a single therapeutic dose of bute you'd need to eat over five hundred 250g horse
burgers, in a day. That's a hell of a BBQ. There is also the small chance that
other drugs given to horses may end up in our food chain, particularly coming
from unregulated sources.
What's happening now? Well, since
then the Food Standards Agency has carried out widespread tests on random samples of
'beef' products. The first set of results did not show any new products
containing more than 1% horsemeat, and the rest of the results are on the way. The most recent update is
that UK food retailers will update ministers on DNA testing every 3 months -
this is obviously going to be thoroughly regulated from now on.
But on
a positive note some good could come from all of this - more people are now buying their meats from
independent shops, and you've got to stand up for the little guys in this
economy. Furthermore, there has been a general decrease in the sales
of processed meats, which have an association with an increased risk of
cancer, which could mean a healthier future for some people. It's a
small impact but hey, 'every little helps'.
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| Hungry enough to eat a horse? |
My personal view - this is an
issue of fraud, and it is quite frankly scary how people can be misled on such
a wide scale. But I would not be concerned of any health affects, because a)
the quantities that one must eat for any risk of effect are huge, b) this
should be significantly more regulated in the future, and c)
I'm vegetarian. Well, would you look at that, no more dodgy horse puns.
Guess I managed to rein it in after all.
References
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21482127
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21495300
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21457188
