Horse meat itself is not dangerous, and it should be the least of the public's' concerns as to what could be contaminating their food.
Admittedly, it’s a problem of food mislabelling and a worrying reminder of the lack of control, knowledge and regulation companies and the government have over the food we are eating, but it seems strange to me that so much attention has been given to the horse meat scandal when studies have revealed there are many more potentially dangerous ingredients that have been found in our meat: from bacteria, faeces, hormones to antibiotics.
In 2009, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) released a study that found that most raw chicken sold in the UK contains campylobacter, a bacterium that can cause food poisoning. They checked for the presence of campylobacter in over 3,000 samples of fresh chicken, and the results showed that 65% were contaminated with traces of the bacteria. Antibiotics, which are used to increase the weight of the animals as well as keep them alive in disease ridden factory farms, create the main problem of encouraging the development of virulent antibiotic- resistant bacteria such as E-coli which can infect humans.
In terms of whether meat actually contains what it says on the label, even “premium burgers only have to contain 80 per cent of the meat named in the title, usually beef or chicken. The rest can be made up of assorted additives, fat and soya protein to bulk out the mixture. Economy burgers (like those tested from the four major chains by the Irish Food Authority’s horse meat investigation) need to contain only 59 per cent meat, and this is allowed to include the unsavoury-sounding ‘mechanically recovered meat’ (MRM), which is little more than a pink slurry produced by grinding every last remnant from the animal’s carcass under high pressure”. David Cameron described the horse meat findings as “extremely disturbing”, but surely these facts are more disturbing? Wouldn't you rather be eating horse meat than pink slurry?
The quote from David Cameron also highlights a general sense of horror that this country seems to have at the idea of eating horse: black beauty, war horse, and my little pony – we don’t like the idea of eating animals that we see as companions, friends, on a level with us. Of course this is doesn't make much sense when you consider that pigs are highly intelligent and capable of being trained as well as dogs. Is the cultural taboo of eating horse because they are seen as more beautiful and majestic? It’s odd to me that people can be so compassionate when it comes to things like abused pets or animal testing, and yet not think twice about the animals they’re eating every day. It seems that these sentimental attitudes towards animals can actually be dangerous when it comes to the safety of the meat industry because people prefer to forget about what they're eating when it’s uncomfortable and inconvenient for them. It’s easier to imagine your bacon frolicking in a field somewhere than it is to investigate things like food safety or animal treatment which might put you off your feed. When people are so disconnected from their food and the source of their food, this is when companies or criminals are able to get away with things like this.
If the horse meat scandal can bring attention to the problems inherent in the meat industry then great, but it shouldn't be used as a distraction from other serious issues in the meat industry that the public tends to ignore.
