Apologies to our Romanian members, as this is nothing personal, but ....... but it appears that criminal gangs have been passing off horsemeat as beef for processed meat products - that may (or may not) have originated from Romania, due to a new law banning horse-drawn carts and wagons from the streets of Romania ...... resulting in too many old nags.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21401111

I heard on Radio 4 that unwanted horses sell for as little as 10 Euros and can fetch 500 Euros as horse meat. It is not surprising that companies have been tempted into fraud with the potential profits on tens of thousands of horses.

One of the major problems seems to be that the chain from abattoir to supermarket is so complex. Many countries are implicated, including Northern Ireland, UK, Ireland, Mexico, USA, Canada, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Cyprus, Poland and Romania.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qhd0r

Horse roast with horseradish ,super

The sale of properly regulated horse meat that is labelled as such is one thing.

The current fraud involves the unregulated processing of horses that may contain various banned chemicals and are passed off as beef. This is a completely different story and I don't think anyone would knowingly want to eat that.

If " it may or may have not " than you " may or may not " blame Romanians mate :-)

Not just Bute but horse AIDS are the worry now. Although, I don't think there is a health risk to humans from a virus in cooked processed meat....
Still, yuck. Horse is one thing if it's farmed for consumption.... another if it's not. Does anyone know if the horse meat that I bought last week, labeled as French is actually French or not? How good is the Swiss equaivilent of FSA?

If you read the Tribune article (sorry I didn't post here as only have paper), in one line they mention Findus for saying 100% beef but actually all horse meat. Who is Findus? Nestle company. Not saying they are completely responsible, but the point is even supposedly reputable food manufacturers are in it.

No Nestlé sold findus in 2000:

The Swiss food company Nestlé owned the Findus brand from 1962 to 2000; it sold the rights to the brand in most of Europe in 2000 whilst retaining ownership in Switzerland. As of 2013 Findus Group (formerly known as Foodvest) owns the Findus brand in most of Europe including the Nordic countries, France, Spain and United Kingdom.[2] In Italy, the brand is owned by Iglo Group and markets a range similar to that sold under the Iglo and Birds Eye brands in the rest of Europe. In Portugal the Findus brand is owned by Ardo.

Quote is from Wikipedia.

Well apologies not accepted I groaned not because I am Romanian...I would have groaned anyway because this is tabloid style of presenting news on an international forum. Who cares if you are blaming the Romanians...or at least do it when it is the case...you said it yourself "may or may not".

"Criminal gangs"? Seriously?

Sure, let's blame the Romanians for everything. The french company Spanghero very likely new what they were buying and just wanted to make a big profit out of it. Just because it's France doesn't mean they don't know how to cheat

And please change the title. It's really offensive...
Thanks

au contraire! the Brits have been accusing the French of cheating and other things for centuries

I read some where (Some cheap ass newspaper) that now they are talking about Mafia and Human meat.

Nothing of course has been proven. Just people trying to sell papers. Surely, the shouldnt be allowed print such dribble!

Really? I did a contracting job for them last summer and went to St Gallen where Findus is located....to listen to a presentation on their new brand plans. With all the senior people in Nestle headquarters. Huh? I must have been sleeping thru this....as well as they sell the Findus products in their store.

Well, according to Findus, they were bought by Nestle in 1962, and sold in 2000:

http://www.findusgroup.com/web/findus_heritage.asp

Tom

OK, thread title changed. Though TBH, I don't see a lot of difference.

As a poster said, it is one thing to have regulated horse meat go into the food supply. Another thing to have illegal horse meat. Depending on whether a horse is going to be eaten, it could be given various drugs by vets - some which would prevent the horse from being safely consumed.

Once again, this shows just how complicated modern supply chains have become.
And that's the real problem IMO. Though there are regulations on how much out of shape a cucumber can be before it it still be sold as a "regular" cucumber, there is apparently no regulation on just how many resellers and subcontractors a piece of food can go through before it reaches the stomach of a human (and all accountability has disappeared).

Personally, I make all my lasagne myself - and it's a hell of kitchen-job, for what turns out to be a maybe 9 or 10 single-meals.

As I said, Nestle sold Findus except the CH brand. The Horse Meat conversation is Fundus UK, not Findus CH, therefore not owned by Nestle.

At the end of the day if some consumers want burgers and frozen pasta meals for pennies the supermarkets and industrial food producers will buy ingredients, or sub contract production, to the lowest bidder. These lowest bidders then have to try to make a profit and it will be very tempting for them, or more importantly, their suppliers, to cut corners or to not ask too many questions......

And these consumers who want these products at ridiculously low prices, what do they think goes into them? A bit of horse meat could well be the best bit of them!