AIBU to think that it would be a great idea to give away the food "contaminated" with horse meat?

[honeytea]

www.thelocal.se/47368/20130416/#.UW13scV9auk

I was reading this article about how IKEA in Sweden are going to either sell meat balls with horse meat in or give them away.

I think it is a fantastic idea, it seems like such a waste to throw away all that food.

AIBU to think that there are families in the UK who are struggling to put food on the table it seems like a great solution to help them and to avoid a huge waste of food?

www.thelocal.se/47368/20130416/#.UW13scV9auk

Sorry forgot the link (not a daily mail link)

If it is safe, people know what they are getting and there is an alternative, fine. If any of those things isn't true, not fine.

It's a fine idea, providing all that mrsT raises is addressed.

I'd buy horsemeat, as long as I knew I was getting it. I've no objection in priciple. I just want to know that it was safe to eat and that the animal had been well cared for.

My concern is how can they know how safe it is when they all claim to not know how it got in there? Are they suddenly going to come up with all this paperwork showing how safe it is?

Which would mean they knew all along what they were doing.

Since they found bute, even if only once and in tiny quantities, the no they damned well shouldn't. Bute shows animals that should never have entered human food chain have done so (not jut horses raised for meat). There's no way it can be considered safe.

The issue isn't horse meat, it whether the meat is fir for human consumption (ie pumped full of antibiotics etc)> horsemeat its self doesn't offend me. Not my first choice, but if the meat is 'clean', I don't have a moral problem with it, it isn't a taboo meat for me.

Given that there has been Bute found in some of the meat tested, I would not accept.

Apart from the fact that the supply chain have been lying to people for God knows how many years and have been using potentially illegal meat, why should poor people have to be given the dregs? Don't they deserve decent food? Because it's the poor who would feel obliged to accept and potentially risk their health due to "giving it away" aspect.

That is a really good point about the Bute, I guess the rules must be less strict in Sweden regarding food safety.

I would personally eat them, we go to IKEA every week for dinner and it was very anoying when they took the meatballs away!

I think you're missing a big point. IKEA are considering stocking meatballs containing horsemeat. Horsemeat that has been approved for human consumption, and has knowingly been added to the meatballs.

The meat withdrawn is not approved, Bute has been found, and the issue raised with antibiotics is also the problem.

The article is about how they hope to use the recalled meat.

I don't think it's a good idea to give unfit food to struggling families, no.

"In Britain bute is sometimes used by doctors to treat some kinds of human arthritis - but the practice is banned in the United States.

Possible severe side effects from ingesting large quantities of bute include cutting the body's production of white blood cells. In rare cases it can cause a type of anaemia.

England's chief medical officer said the risk to humans from the meat infected with bute was "very low." Dame Sally Davies said vast quantities of contaminated meat would have to be eaten to have an effect.

She said: "If humans have eaten contaminated meat there is a very low risk. In the recent results the amount of bute is between trace and 1.9mg per kilogram.

"A person would have to eat between 500 and 600 100percent horsemeat burgers in one day to get a treatment does of buteozone.""

In other words it's not dangerous at all.

Since I joined mumsnet around a year ago I have read threads multiple times where people are saying that they are struggling with money to the point where they are hugry as they don't have enough money to buy enough food to feed all the family, this should not happen but it is happening in the UK and personally I would prefere to eat meat with the very small risk horse meat poses than me or my family to be hungry.

YABU because it may not be safe to eat

I don't like this attitude that it's not good enough for most - but the poor? Step up from throwing it in landfill. Let them eat horse (and be grateful for the public generosity).

I don't like the idea of people being hungry :(

When there was the BSE scare families on benifits were given free tinned beaf that couldn't be sold in shops.

I don't like the idea that poor people should eat sub standard food.

Neither do I but it would give people a choice, I don't think anyone should be force fed.

Surely the fact that bute was found means it was meat that shouldn't have entered the food chain. They tested for bute, but what about other less common medicines that were tested for? What if the meat was diseased or contaminated in some other way? I don't think the food is a high enough quality for anyone to eat it. Maybe the companies involved should be fined and some of that money be donated to soup kitchens or similar.

I think any food suspected to contain horse meat should be destroyed as there just isn't the traceability.

Sorry, meant medicines that weren't tested for.