IKEA (Now Taco Bell and other food agencies) Meatball scandal increasingly disturbing

[chiefmickeymouse]

Oh you're all just a bunch of neighsayers.

That'll teach you to put a gift horse in your mouth.

 

[cm8]

Oh you're all just a bunch of neighsayers.

 

[denisem]

What I can't figure out is...are there this many old, broken down horses around to slaughter to make this worthwhile? I'd think it'd take easily as much money/care (if not more) to raise horses than cattle.

That reminds me. I live in a city called the Horse Capital of the World and there's a local butcher shop called Quality Discount Meat. I went there once and didn't buy anything.

 

[NHdisneylover]

To me, it is not so much the idea that it was horse meat. The issue is that it was added to a product and was not labeled. As such the consumer could not even make an informed decision as to if they wanted to purchase the product. It was the fact that it was in there and it wasn't supposed to be in there that bothers me.

That is my issue with it too.

 

[gatormommy07]

Food beyond compare
Food beyond belief
Mix it in a mincer
And pretend it's beef
Kidney of a horse
Liver of a cat
Filling up the sausages
With this and that

Perhaps Master Thenardier is in charge of the meatballs as well!!

 

[Hardy]

Any of you willing to eat horse meat should be concerned for your health. There is no such thing as a horse raised for human consumption. These are racehorses, broken down horses, backyard breeder horses, and unwanted pets being slaughtered. There is no telling the vaccines, antibiotics, pain medication, or what has been injected into their system over their life or even within days of slaughter. It is not unusual for a horse to race one day, and be sent to auction the next, where the kill buyers are waiting.

There are so many unwanted horses, they sell for low enough to make a nice trailer full of profit, even currently shipping to Canada and Mexico for slaughter....which anyone who has any sort of heart should know these animals suffer terribly in transport to slaughter, possibly going days with no food or water (this is where cows have it better, they don't have to travel so far). When they get there, they are not docile like cattle, and are terrified, struggling, and very difficult to humanely kill, so often they aren't.

Now, a slaughter plant may be opening again here in the states. The only thing that is good is some horses destined for slaughter may not have to travel so far to slaughter and saves some of their suffering, but this just invites the possibility of horse meat making its way into us beef, so making our beef even more unsafe than it already is.

I don't eat meat anyway, but just wanted to point out that even if eating meat that comes from a horse doesn't bother you, there is no such thing as clean meat and is much riskier than eating cattle, poultry, etc that is raised with rules for human consumption.

 

[tvguy]

One more reason I am glad I don't eat meat! On a more serious note I am appalled that this is happening because of mislableing. If it could happen to meatballs it could happen to my beanballs as well, not that I actually buy premade beanballs but that is not the point. I hate to think that products are mislabled as I am an avid label reader and I want to know exactly what me and my family are consuming.

That was my daughter's mindset when she became a vegetarian, then all the spinach/lettuce/broccoli salmonella recalls hit and she remarked that "apparently meat is the only safe food out there".

 

[mombrontrent]

That was my daughter's mindset when she became a vegetarian, then all the spinach/lettuce/broccoli salmonella recalls hit and she remarked that "apparently meat is the only safe food out there".

Food posioning by fruits/veggies is very low compared to meat products especially if you are washing your produce well. Also the veggies that are being contaminated are from livestock runoff (manure) and cross contamination with meat products. Veggies themselves do not contain salmonella or e-coli ect.

 

[ckay87]

I like that my husband hunts and we can eat venison pretty regularly. It's free-range and organic and we know exactly how it's processed. In fact, the more I learn about commercial meat processing and the way we treat those animals, the more I'm going to banish him from the house during deer season until he uses up all of his maximum amount of tags!

 

[robinb]

I like that my husband hunts and we can eat venison pretty regularly. It's free-range and organic and we know exactly how it's processed. In fact, the more I learn about commercial meat processing and the way we treat those animals, the more I'm going to banish him from the house during deer season until he uses up all of his maximum amount of tags!

Three words: chronic wasting disease.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Any of you willing to eat horse meat should be concerned for your health. There is no such thing as a horse raised for human consumption. These are racehorses, broken down horses, backyard breeder horses, and unwanted pets being slaughtered. There is no telling the vaccines, antibiotics, pain medication, or what has been injected into their system over their life or even within days of slaughter. It is not unusual for a horse to race one day, and be sent to auction the next, where the kill buyers are waiting.

There are so many unwanted horses, they sell for low enough to make a nice trailer full of profit, even currently shipping to Canada and Mexico for slaughter....which anyone who has any sort of heart should know these animals suffer terribly in transport to slaughter, possibly going days with no food or water (this is where cows have it better, they don't have to travel so far). When they get there, they are not docile like cattle, and are terrified, struggling, and very difficult to humanely kill, so often they aren't.

Now, a slaughter plant may be opening again here in the states. The only thing that is good is some horses destined for slaughter may not have to travel so far to slaughter and saves some of their suffering, but this just invites the possibility of horse meat making its way into us beef, so making our beef even more unsafe than it already is.

I don't eat meat anyway, but just wanted to point out that even if eating meat that comes from a horse doesn't bother you, there is no such thing as clean meat and is much riskier than eating cattle, poultry, etc that is raised with rules for human consumption.

Points to consider, for sure. Why are we shipping them out of the U.S.? I know there was legislation being bounced around re: horse slaughter - what happened with that here? Is that why? Unfortunate, since humane laws here are fairly strong re humane slaughter. (Even though I'm not dumb enough to think there's no suffering.)

 

[Planogirl]

I personally don't want to eat horsemeat but I do understand that unwanted horses will be slaughtered anyway. Number one priority should be to make that they are killed as humanely as possible.

It's all very sad.

 

[nathalee81]

I was vegetarian for 15 years before I went vegan. I loved cheese and thought going vegan would be to hard will all the dairy and eggs in everything. Then I did it and realized it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought. Sure I read labels and alot of processed food is out but I consider that a positive thing.

Since going vegan we eat wonderful fresh homemade meals. We really do eat delicious food with a much greater variety than anyone else I know. On our menu tonight: Boston baked beans cooked in my slow cooker, tofu scrambled burritos with sauteed onions, peppers, salsa and fresh cilanto and a fruit salad with pineapple, apple, banana and oranges spashed with lime juice. I was off today and even baked an apple pie. We'll eat that later when we have room in our bellies

It is definitely something I think I would like to do in the future.

It is something I kind of struggle with because we are big animal lovers...and I feel that tug inside my head (and my heart) that eating meat doesn't go along with that.

 

[Sparkly]

I had a Tesco beefburger last week- I felt terribly ill. My throat felt horse and I had the terrible trots.

 

[threeboysmom]

I thought this was just a problem in Europe??

The article listed IKEA, Burger King, and Taco Bell, but they were all European locations.

 

[FergieTCat]

Realistically, why is one animal different from the other? Is it a cultural thing?

I mean, obviously, I wouldn't want to find out I ate kitten or puppy, but, on the other hand, meat is meat.

Donner, party of one ...

 

[Pea-n-Me]

More information from today:

LONDON (AP) — Taco Bell is the latest restaurant chain to acknowledge that its food has been adulterated with horse meat, yanking a variety of ground beef products from its three British outlets and issuing an apology to its patrons Friday.

Meanwhile, in Iceland, a food official said his team had found a beef product which contained no meat at all.

Chief meat inspector Kjartan Hreinsson said a brand of locally produced beef pie found at a Reykjavik supermarket had ‘‘no mammalian DNA.’’

‘‘That was the peculiar thing,’’ he said. ‘‘It was labeled as beef pie, so it should be beef pie.’’

It should be, but across Europe meat labeled as beef has been found to be contaminated with horse — from frozen food at supermarkets to fast food in restaurants and even school and hospital meals.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/eu...eat-scandal/Mhg1N21IIkFtWXAgV3II9M/story.html

 

[FergieTCat]

More information from today:

Let's hope the FDA is more diligent on this side of the pond. If not, then saddle up!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Let's hope the FDA is more diligent on this side of the pond. If not, then saddle up!

 

[robinb]

I had a Tesco beefburger last week- I felt terribly ill. My throat felt horse and I had the terrible trots.

Oh no! You need to pace yourself better and don't eat with such unbridled enthusiasm.