The horsemeat scandal over the past few weeks has caused a lot of anxiety and outrage amongst shoppers, schools and supermarkets across the country. Many supermarkets such as Tesco, Aldi and Iceland in Croydon have had to recall products after they had been contained horsemeat. People have called for the government to take more action and punish the supermarkets but they have pushed blame onto suppliers in Europe and this has led to calls for better traceability of meat.
One young shopper in Croydon said: “I feel disgusted that I might have been eating horse blissfully unaware.” Another young woman said: “I have lost complete trust in the supermarkets, if they have been lying to us about this then what else could they have been lying to us about?” Many shoppers have lost faith in big supermarkets after this scandal, but it is unclear whether this will have a long lasting effect on the UK market for chilled and frozen ready meals which is valued at £1.85bn and grew 6.6% in 2011.
Some people have claimed that they do not mind the fact that they may have been eating horsemeat but are outraged that the supermarkets have lied to them. However, many companies such as Findus have been badly affected by this scandal and are unlikely to gain consumer trust for a while after the mislabelling.
The scandal has affected many countries such as UK, the Republic of Ireland, France, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany but shoppers in our local area have certainly been frustrated by the scandal too. The most important thing now is how the government reacts to this scandal; some have called for more regulation of the complex meat industry as some suppliers may have used horsemeat as it is cheaper. However, no more than 1% of horsemeat was found in any of the samples and the scandal should just make consumers more aware of the products they are buying in the future and supermarkets more careful with their labelling.
