[UK] Waitrose chief is smug about horsemeat scandal

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I see his point. Being able to say, "Neener-Neener" at the competition while extolling your own virtues is what makes commercialism / capitalism so great.

At least he has a reason.

The Right has called for deregulation and caveat emptor, and this is what happens. Not that I find that horsemeat is unappealing, it should obviously not masquerade as other meat.

Apparently Sainsbury's is the one that has actually bothered to do test. Apparently they have test 50% already.

Of course they are goign to try out do each other, that is natural. Notice Tesco has been decidedly silent.

Meat hasn't been cheap in years.

(I like your new avatar, Tequila!)

Some claim that the European horsemeat scandal is a result of a food supply chain that has become too complex to be safe.

Others claim that Europeans are stuck with a system that over-regulates the industry to the point where even the most meager profits must be obtained through measures that are both extreme and illegal.

Then there is the fact that in today's world, foodstuffs are highly mobile commodities - you really can not be absolutely certain of the origins of the foods you are eating, unless you produce the food yourself. Even the so-called "Organic" label does not guaranty that your food will be of any greater quality than its less-expensive "non-organic" counterparts.

I say that it's all of these factors, combined in a convoluted mess that even IBM's Watson could not figure out.

So what do we have now? We have an industry that tacitly requires cheap fillers and additives, without which most food producers would go broke. Back in the 1970s, it was alleged that a major fast-food chain used cheap soy flour to fill out their expensive beef patties, resulting in a three- to five-fold increase in the chain's profits. Nowadays, that same chain dominates the fast-food market here in the States. Could they have grown to such dominance without finding ways to increase their profit margins? We may never know for certain, but I (for one) will never by another burger from that chain ... no matter how many billions they have sold ...

It isn't really about horse meat as such but knowing what it is you are eating.

The product flagged are the very crudest examples of processed food, however that doesn't mean it would be possible to happen in supposedly higher quality food.

I think squeeze margin, and overheads doe mean there is more incentive for criminal activity.

Answer me this though, have never eat something than in hindsight could have been something other than you believed? If not how can you be sure?

This sort of thing can happen anywhere.

Go out for Tex-Mex you could be eating donkey. This is not just going to go on in Europe, any territory is vulnerable.

"That which does not kill me only makes me stronger."

As long as it doesn't make me sick, then I don't mind eating fidofurters, horsehash, or cat soup.

Ever had deep-fried guinea pig?

Horsemeat does make you stronger! It contains twice the amount of iron compared to beef, and at least in the EU they generally recieve less antibiotics and other medicine compared to cattle.

The main problem is they wasted a high quality product to create minced meat for cheap lasagnas. Retailers should just sell the meat as horsemeat. I think many poorer Brits would like the opportunity to eat steak on the cheap, so just give them that choice. I'll post it again:



Nice.

Horse meat often contains a pain killer which is not safe for humans. This is a problem in the EU.