Tescos horse meat

don't trust owt under a crust or bun

Have to confess an interest here.  I used to shop at Sainsburys and Tesco but have switched to Lidl now who are far cheaper and surprisingly they are better quality in general - especially on fruit and veg.  The amount of money we are saving is huge (I reckon around £200-£300/month so our monthly spend is down from £7-800/month to £500/month.  The difference isn't trivial - 4 pints of milk 99p, decent Montepulciano £3.49 a bottle, a huge box of lovely clemtines £3.99.

Granted there are a few things you can't buy there (like nice soup etc) so I just pop into M&S or Waitrose for such delicacies.

I just get the feeling that Sainsburys and Tesco seek to maximise profit by buying the cheapest consignment of any given commodity they can and they sell it for a top whack price - as much as Waitrose most of the time.  Unless you buy the 'taste the difference' range the clementines, garlic etc in Sainsburys just don't taste of anything.  Lidl I think take more care in sourcing stuff and their normal clementines and garlic taste great.  As for M&S or Waitrose they both clearly care about quality and so I don't object to paying for such excellent food.

I think the latest scandal with horse meat at Tesco just exposes how little screening their stuff gets.  And while I acknowledge that in fact Lidl in Ireland were guilty of selling contaminated meat too it had originated from an Irish supplier and only affected their Irish stores.

Interestingly I was chatting with a regional manager at Lidl the other day and saying how impressed we were with the store and how comparable I thought much of the stuff was to Waitrose and he said that he was caught out when he first joined Lidl because a Waitrose lorry turned up and started unloading milk.  He phoned Head Office and said the wrong lorry was unloading - turned out it's the same milk from the same supplier and that day they were using a Waitrose branded van.

Interesting.

Jonathan

I have a feeling that when all this settles down & the investigations are finished it will turn out to be a scam with bulk meat products & most likely from eastern Europe. 

I'm not aware of any requirements for the burger producer to verify the species & would assume they accept that if it says beef on the box, it is beef.  

The slaughter & the associated control legislation of all forms of meat is very strictly controlled in Ireland/UK & most of the rest of EU for that matter.  The burger producers possibly buy meat from local meat slaughter/packers but the volumes involved normally mean they must import from overseas.  All the products are under veterinary & import controls & the official papers that go with it clearly show the species. If horse was in a box it could only have been failure of process control or more likely deliberately packed & labeled as beef,  whatever it contravenes a whole raft of legislation.  

Also keep in mind that 3 separate burger production factories have been implicated so it points more to an import issue rather than a burger factory issue. 

And by the way folks, the meat that is shipped into these burger makers does not look like the stuff you see on your butchers display counter.  Need I say more  .........  MAKE YOUR OWN

Guys don't forget that it's not only Tesco involved here others have been named. The main problem as I see it is that I would like the label to match what I'm actually buying.

I read today the source of the contamination is a European processing factory believed to be in Holland or Spain that supply a bulking meat protein powder that was used by the Irish processing plant that makes the supermarket burgers. Interestingly they also make burgers for Burger King. I thought they were supposed to be 100% ground beef.

I once inadvertently ate horse meat in Switzerland when I ordered steak tartare. It was at the time of the BSE crisis back home and I hadn't had it for years. I did mention to my friend Serge that it tasted sweeter and he said it could be to a drop of brandy they add. When I got the bill I noticed 'tartare cheval'. I can't say I didn't enjoy it.

Steve

This could well explain the horse (& pig) DNA traces Steve,  but not 29% horse content in the Tesco burger,  that must have been a chunk of real horse.

I wasn't aware of that figure Mike. That's nearly one third horse. I know they put a lot of bulking agents in cheap hamburgers and sausages but, I agree, the only explanation can be there was proper horse meat in the burger to take it to that level.

+1 for both Aldi & Lidl. I like to back people who look after my wallet. We get 95% of our shopping in our local Aldi,other half gets a few fancy bits at M & S. Both firms are huge in Europe,and to my mind absolutely nothing wrong with their products.

I come from Belgium and in all the Aldi over their they have a seperate butchers within their stores and sell horse meat as a standard item. I prefer the taste to our stnd UK steak and always bring several steaks back with me every time we go over.

Mista H

Steve, I just read a www news report that says one of the Irish burger factories has pointed a finger at  suppliers of the beef protein fillers it uses to make cheap burgers just as you reported in your post. More info is a little more shocking in that they say the Tesco burgers are only 63% meat and 37% concentrated proteins extracted from animal carcasses and offcuts. Industry sources said the 29% horse in the Tesco burger was likely to have originated from these high-protein bulking powders from rendered horses rather than any fresh horse meat.

I've eaten horse many times, ditto zebra,  I can add lizard, snake & mealy grubs, point being I have no qualms about eating anything.

But this fiasco around these so called burgers makes me even more determined to avoid any shop/restaurant burger/sausage/salami type product that I don't know how & where its made.

I don't mind what I eat.

But I am not prepared to deal with people/retailers that offer me beef but then provide horse without seeking my agreement and re-negotiating any deal. These greedy ba*tards need to be prosecuted.

Cheers

Don

Mike,

I totally agree. Any cheap mass produced meat products are suspect. Like you I'm very adventurous regarding food but always favouring freshly produced food rather than processed muck. 

Have to dash, just cooking dinner

Steve

Hi Steve.

Do you have a good selection of independent shops, butcher, green grocer, baker in you local area. Or do you have to use supermarkets for the majority of your 'fresh' produce. Sorry to hear that you have not been feeling to good this week. Take care.

Regards Graham.

Graham,

I'm fortunate to have an excellent market with a fantastic fishmonger, fruit and veg and a nearby butcher that does excellent meat. I was there at 7pm this morning before I went to work. Less than half an hour, job done. Not only is the produce first class but so is the value. My wife goes again on Tuesdays. We don't buy and meat or fish from supermarkets save for the odd whole chicken. 

Shopping this way is also more sociable as you develop relationships with the people who serve you. We've just been invited to the greengrocers daughter's wedding reception in the summer.

I cooked beautiful hake fillets tonight resting on a tomato sauce containing onions, peppers, garlic, paprika and fennel seeds with new potatoes and sautéed courgettes. Delicious. No processed food here.

ATB

Steve

Or music all organic vinyl 

Graham

Very good Graham, the food I buy isn't necessarily organic but is of the freshest, highest quality. 

ATB Steve

The ideal beer to accompany your Tesco burger:

steve

Mike -

Sausages as the next foodstuff to be forensically examined? Some are closer to a bread product!

A close friend, a former butcher has educated me about how much of the 'meat' (all types) is 'recovered' via various processes and then reformed (in particular pork/ham).

By eye, it's very difficult to identify e.g. whether breaded ham slices are re-formed or not. I always wear my glasses around the supermarket now!

It's the new reality of mass food production, with the public not helped by the 'use of language' in the industry as to how product is described and advertised. 100% beef means it appears means using perhaps close to 100% of the cow!

Best to go to your local butcher and discuss your requirements with him. Ours moved to a nearby village but I still drive out there even after 10 years. Excellent quality and very reasonable prices.

A bit like buying decent hi-fi kit really.

Cheers

Don

I agree HL,  I used to work for a cmpy that supplied hardware to the food industry & have been around more food process plants than most people,  as a result I have seen stuff that would turn many people veggie,  it might be beef Jim, but not as we know it - nuff said.

Problem is its a lot more complicated big picture,  not least is that it is the price we pay for cheap & always available food,  but that is a whole other story.       

Thank goodness I live in a place were I do not need to watch a budget & do not need to use supermarkets for meat products, can't remember the last time.  My village butcher makes his own sausages & is happy to tell you - show you even - exactly what is in each flavour. His meat arrives in whole or quarter carcasses   -  & his burgers get made in house (great laugh yesterday as the label on rarely seen outside the BBQ season was a pile of burgers with "added real beef flavour" 

When we go to football at weekends at Fulham we have 2 walk past 2 Buger vans to get to our seats. Just the smell puts me off,dread to think what goes into them. I would have to be at starvation point to eat one.

We often do our own burgers. Other half buys steak in Aldi,puts it thru the mincer adds fine chopped onion,egg etc and they taste great.

Mista h

Isn't it mainly prawn sandwiches at the Cottage?