Britain’s horsemeat lasagne food scare spread to several other European countries on Friday as officials said they suspected criminal activity was behind the growing scandal. Swedish food giant Findus withdrew various frozen meals from France and Sweden, a day after withdrawing frozen beef lasagne from sale in Britain that was found to contain up to 100 perecent equine flesh. The British supermarket chain Aldi meanwhile announced on Friday that two ready meal ranges contained similar quantities of the meat. The meals were all produced in Luxembourg for French supplier Comigel and the company said the horsemeant orginated in a Romanian abbatoir.
People tend to (understandably, I suppose) work themselves into a lather when it comes to the idea of eating animals we develop emotional connections with. It’s why we don’t regularly dine on a repast of dog, cat, or horse. As a species, we have a difficult time looking at a pet we feel affection for and seeing a meal in motion. The fraudulent aspect of using horse meat instead of hamburger aside, most Westerners find the idea of eating horse meat, especially unknowingly, to be particularly repellent. That’s why so many European politicians are scrambling for cover these days; the revelation that they and their constituents may have been eating horse meat in the guise of hamburger has caused quite the scandal.
We should probably be surprised that this sort of thing doesn’t happen with some regularly here in the U.S. With Republicans regularly trying to reduce food safety protections, who’s to say that before too much longer your Big Mac isn’t at least partially composed of horse meat? With the proper seasoning and formulation, who would know, right?
In some parts of the world- France, central Asia, China, Latin America- consumption of horse meat is common. It’s not a food safety issue; there’s nothing inherent unsafe about consuming horse meat. Some may find it unsavory, of course, but this seems more about effective labeling than it is about anything resembling health risks. That said, the next time you bite into the Big Mac, you might just want to give some thought to what exactly it is you’re eating.
Or you could just do what I did and go vegan. Problem solved.
Just sayin’….
