What's your beef with the horse meat scandal?

[Tastycles]

If you're European, you'll have heard this by now. In a nutshell, Europeans have been inadvertently eating horse meat disguised as beef recently, in what seems to be an organised crime racket from Eastern Europe. Suppliers have bought meat in good faith, and it turns out it was horse all along. Major supermarkets have been affected, including the biggest in the country, Tesco as well as schools and Burger King.

The reaction to this has largely fallen into two camps; those who don't care and see no difference between the horse of now and the beef of before, and those who are outraged at the fact they've been eating Mr. Ed. Personally, it's not the horse meat that bothers me, it's that Tesco and so don't know what's in their food or where their meat comes from, and have been serving it regardless. As it stands, it's just horse, but what if it had been horse or even just beef pumped full of drugs unsuitable for people? The retailers would be none the wiser and the customers would pay that price.

So, my question is simply, how do you feel about the meat scandal?

 

[ABMorales787]

I've seen similar issues before. Health inspectors don't exactly put much effort in checking the components of the food or where exactly does it come from.

 

[Diet Soda]

Nowt wrong wi' hoss.

Mark my words, Christmas Day 2014, every house in Britain will have a horse leg on the table.

In fact, we should stop those clippity-cloppity buggers from dashing about; keep them on a farm to fatten up, it'll make for better burgers.

Seriously though, a friend of mine is about to take get finals before becoming a vet, and I'm told that there is like a one in million chance of getting seriously ill from consuming horse meat, and you should only really worry if you suffer from long-term autoimmune deficiency.

 

[Slice]

On its own, I don't eating horse meat would be a problem. But the ol' switcheroo thing...

They have this thing where I come from, where parents trick kids into eating iguanas by making them think it's chicken. (supposedly iguanas make you stronger or something) I always thought this was really messed up. It's messed up as all hell, substituting one thing for something else and not saying what it is. It's definitely the principle behind the thing here.

Reminds me of my old friend Hannibal's antics...

 

[Loveless]

I fall into the second camp. I don't really care that it's horse, I had it in France and didn't care for it. To be honest I'm not actually surprised. If you've tried those cheap readymeals and you aren't a complete dumbass then you'd know the meat is dodgy. I'm more concerned that a large number of chains have no clue what they're selling, that is a serious issue and a danger to standards.

 

[MattyB]

I have no problem with eating it. I do have a problem with it being branded as beef though. But if I were eating horse all this time instead of beef I wouldn't care the slightest. Would just hope it doesn't happen again.

 

[Cereal Killer]

I suppose the reason people have a problem, is because they were lied to. The meat Consumers thought that it was beef they were taking in, and it turns out it was Horse meat. Although, I'm not entirely sure why some individuals are over exaggerating, food is food, meat is meat. For the religious lot though, it's understanding, given that some religions don't allow you to eat Horse meat.