As the horsemeat scandal takes yet another twist, the true extent is revealed of the betrayal of consumer trust. That so much horsemeat masquerading as beef could enter the British food chain is staggering enough. It also begs the bigger question of what else is getting into our food without us knowing?
How do we know that meat from religiously slaughtered animals – their throats often cut whilst fully conscious – isn’t getting into the wider food chain?
How do we know that pig meat isn’t getting into non-pork products; something that would be of real concern to some religious communities?
How do we know that pork produced using cruel sow stalls, banned in Britain and partially so in Europe, isn’t being stocked on some supermarket shelves?
How do we know that meat from the offspring of cloned animals isn’t once again in the British food chain, as it was in 2010? After all, there is no requirement to label meat and milk from the offspring of clones. What’s more, the UK government leads the way in opposing any effective European restrictions on cloning.
What we do know is that much of the meat on many supermarket shelves is from factory farmed animals, but consumers are denied real power of choice because it isn’t labelled to say how it was produced.
And there’s another question that no one seems to be asking. The horses that found their way into British burgers and ready meals; how were they killed? Did they end their lives in a state of fear, pain and misery? I suspect we’ll never know. After all, if their meat can slip into our food so widely without us knowing, how will we ever find out how they died?
The scandal raises more questions than answers. What I do know is that urgent action is needed, not least by Government, to start rebuilding public confidence. An obvious first measure would be to introduce compulsory labelling telling consumers how their food was produced. By my reckoning, it’s the least they should do.
Phil, what is CIWF doing to raise these concerns in the media? So far all we hear about is the fact that these meat products contain horsemeat. Why nothing to challenge where these horses have come from and how they have lived and died?
I am vegetarian and have been for ten years. I think it’s a disgrace to kill horses and eat them. People who eat meat will have to be careful they are not eating pork products and horse meat as producers of meat put all sorts of rubbish in some meats.
I have to say that these are my thoughts exactly regarding how these poor horses met their end. Obviously it has to be of major concern that health issues and the way this has been done be swiftly investigated, but this is the first time I have read anywhere about concerns over the slaughtering of these horses. I would say that because it has been done in an underhand way that those involved are hardly going to care about the welfare of these horses are they! I just don’t trust the industry now, and I was a vegetarian, and have since been torn by changing my habits due to my own personal reasons, but I am really questioning all of this again. Thank you Philip for also saying about the welfare side for these poor creatures.
Hi Moira
We have been discussing the absolute necessity for all animal products to have ‘method of production’ labelling so that consumers can see how their food has been reared. Our labelling campaign urgently calls for this transparency.
Thank you for your support and for your concern.
Best wishes
Philip
I am hoping that this ‘scandal’ will open up the floodgates of just what a dirty industry the ‘meat industry’ can be. I am hoping that even more people will become involved in raising the awareness of the way that animals are raised (hopefully in the highest welfare standards), and exposing those who do not have any regard in the way these animals are farmed and slaughtered at the end of their lives. I have huge reservations that whilst we condemn those who slaughter animals by cutting their throats without any kind of stunning (which I find totally unacceptable) we allow this to go on in our country under the heading of religious slaughter.
I thank goodness for the work that Compassion does for all farm animals, for without your lobbying and campaigns I dread to think of the inhumane treatment many animals would still be receiving. By the way I have signed up for the labelling campaign and perhaps it could not have come at a better time, so perhaps out of something very sickening and saddening, something good may come out of it.