Re: Tesco Horse Burgers : Sat Jan 19, 2013 2:39 pm  

Big Graeme wrote: As a certain admin has pointed out elsewhere, you'll notice that the reports say horse DNA not horse meat, these are economy products, meat content will be low. Tesco, which sold a beefburger containing "29 per cent horse "meat"" ,blamed the suppliers, saying they were either guilty of illegality or gross negligence. Almost a 1/3rd horse meat, so not exactly just DNA traces. Traces of Cow DNA is usually what you get in economy beef burgers.

Big Graeme wrote: As a certain admin has pointed out elsewhere, you'll notice that the reports say horse DNA not horse meat, these are economy products, meat content will be low. Tesco, which sold a beefburger containing "29 per cent horse "meat"" ,blamed the suppliers, saying they were either guilty of illegality or gross negligence. Almost a 1/3rd horse meat, so not exactly just DNA traces. Traces of Cow DNA is usually what you get in economy beef burgers.

Re: Tesco Horse Burgers : Sat Jan 19, 2013 5:37 pm  

GraftonRed wrote: Tesco, which sold a beefburger containing "29 per cent horse "meat"" ,blamed the suppliers, saying they were either guilty of illegality or gross negligence. Almost a 1/3rd horse meat, so not exactly just DNA traces. Traces of Cow DNA is usually what you get in economy beef burgers. Read that link again... http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... -additives http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21071068 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-1 ... klash.html http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/16/world ... index.html

GraftonRed wrote: Tesco, which sold a beefburger containing "29 per cent horse "meat"" ,blamed the suppliers, saying they were either guilty of illegality or gross negligence. Almost a 1/3rd horse meat, so not exactly just DNA traces. Traces of Cow DNA is usually what you get in economy beef burgers. Read that link again... http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... -additives http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21071068 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-1 ... klash.html http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/16/world ... index.html

Re: Tesco Horse Burgers : Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:20 am  

Tesco drops Silvercrest They're also introducing DNA tests on meat products. The statement concluded: "These checks will set a new standard. It will be a significant investment for Tesco, borne by Tesco. - Yeah right. So Tesco will be paying for these tests from their own pockets or shareholder dividends? Now I'm certainly no expert on genetics but I assumed that a DNA tests needed to be tailored to identify a specific animal/species and also how long are these tests going to take? The meat will probably be off before they're completed

Tesco drops Silvercrest They're also introducing DNA tests on meat products. The statement concluded: "These checks will set a new standard. It will be a significant investment for Tesco, borne by Tesco. - Yeah right. So Tesco will be paying for these tests from their own pockets or shareholder dividends? Now I'm certainly no expert on genetics but I assumed that a DNA tests needed to be tailored to identify a specific animal/species and also how long are these tests going to take? The meat will probably be off before they're completed

Re: Tesco Horse Burgers : Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:36 am  

cod'ead wrote: Tesco drops Silvercrest They're also introducing DNA tests on meat products. The statement concluded: "These checks will set a new standard. It will be a significant investment for Tesco, borne by Tesco. - Yeah right. So Tesco will be paying for these tests from their own pockets or shareholder dividends? Now I'm certainly no expert on genetics but I assumed that a DNA tests needed to be tailored to identify a specific animal/species and also how long are these tests going to take? The meat will probably be off before they're completed It's bad anyway, but if the story from the Guardian the other week is true, that it's actually 'drind' – dehydrated rind, which can be listed as 'seasoning' on a packet, so you've no chance of expecting that one – then it's far worse. Because for that to happen you're not talking about an accident.

cod'ead wrote: Tesco drops Silvercrest They're also introducing DNA tests on meat products. The statement concluded: "These checks will set a new standard. It will be a significant investment for Tesco, borne by Tesco. - Yeah right. So Tesco will be paying for these tests from their own pockets or shareholder dividends? Now I'm certainly no expert on genetics but I assumed that a DNA tests needed to be tailored to identify a specific animal/species and also how long are these tests going to take? The meat will probably be off before they're completed It's bad anyway, but if the story from the Guardian the other week is true, that it's actually 'drind' – dehydrated rind, which can be listed as 'seasoning' on a packet, so you've no chance of expecting that one – then it's far worse. Because for that to happen you're not talking about an accident.

Re: Tesco Horse Burgers : Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:44 am  

I wonder if this fiasco will convert many people to making their own meals from scratch?
It ought to but somehow I don't think it will.

I mean, how hard is it to make a burger?

Re: Tesco Horse Burgers : Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:55 am  

El Barbudo wrote:

I wonder if this fiasco will convert many people to making their own meals from scratch?
It ought to but somehow I don't think it will.

I mean, how hard is it to make a burger?

Indeed. Probably even easier to make a meatball (you don't need egg for either).

But we have (quite widely) been deskilled over, say, two and a half generations. Even, in my experience, a mother who was dutiful about preparing fresh meals every day for her family was also reluctant, for whatever reason, to teach either of her own children any kitchen skills other than a few chores – scraping new potatoes, prepping sprouts, drying (but never washing) dishes, peeling a boiled egg.

It's taken me 10 years to get to the point I'm at now,

Re: Tesco Horse Burgers : Wed Jan 30, 2013 10:27 am  

cod'ead wrote: Tesco drops Silvercrest They're also introducing DNA tests on meat products. The statement concluded: "These checks will set a new standard. It will be a significant investment for Tesco, borne by Tesco. - Yeah right. So Tesco will be paying for these tests from their own pockets or shareholder dividends? Now I'm certainly no expert on genetics but I assumed that a DNA tests needed to be tailored to identify a specific animal/species and also how long are these tests going to take? The meat will probably be off before they're completed I'm guessing that the idea won't be to test every batch of burgers before it goes on sale but to test randomly. The idea being that if the supplier knows the test is happening they will desist from including the wrong species.

cod'ead wrote: Tesco drops Silvercrest They're also introducing DNA tests on meat products. The statement concluded: "These checks will set a new standard. It will be a significant investment for Tesco, borne by Tesco. - Yeah right. So Tesco will be paying for these tests from their own pockets or shareholder dividends? Now I'm certainly no expert on genetics but I assumed that a DNA tests needed to be tailored to identify a specific animal/species and also how long are these tests going to take? The meat will probably be off before they're completed I'm guessing that the idea won't be to test every batch of burgers before it goes on sale but to test randomly. The idea being that if the supplier knows the test is happening they will desist from including the wrong species.

Re: Tesco Horse Burgers : Wed Jan 30, 2013 10:57 am  

El Barbudo wrote:

I'm guessing that the idea won't be to test every batch of burgers before it goes on sale but to test randomly. The idea being that if the supplier knows the test is happening they will desist from including the wrong species.

As Tesco (and I'm not picking on them) are hardly independent in the matter, I'd infinitely prefer it if a few quid of state budgets went back into state agencies doing the random testing, as led to the discovery in Ireland, as opposed to this country, where funds were apparently withdrawn for this sort of thing ages ago, presumably in some round of budget cuts, and on the basis of light touch regulation, and "we can trust Tesco can't we".

As for making your own burgers, yes it is easy. If money is no object. As for making your own burgers that work out at the same price as what you can buy economy burgers for, no, it isn't easy. Even if you use the cheapest of cheap mince - but that you couldn't do, of course, since once it's a container of mince, without testing you couldn't know whether any horse was in the mix.

Re: Tesco Horse Burgers : Wed Jan 30, 2013 11:46 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

As Tesco (and I'm not picking on them) are hardly independent in the matter, I'd infinitely prefer it if a few quid of state budgets went back into state agencies doing the random testing, as led to the discovery in Ireland, as opposed to this country, where funds were apparently withdrawn for this sort of thing ages ago, presumably in some round of budget cuts, and on the basis of light touch regulation, and "we can trust Tesco can't we"...

This is absolutely what's been happening, with everything from food hygiene to trading standards.

Mind, I was expecting many of the newspapers to insist that self-regulation is obviously the way forward.

Re: Tesco Horse Burgers : Wed Jan 30, 2013 12:32 pm  

Mintball wrote:

This is absolutely what's been happening, with everything from food hygiene to trading standards.

Mind, I was expecting many of the newspapers to insist that self-regulation is obviously the way forward.

IIRC it was someone at the Irish FSA who thought "hang on, we've got a couple of bob left in the budget, let's get the lab to test for horse DNA". If it hadn't been for that, some would still be chomping on Trigger in blissfull ignorance