Tesco beef burgers are 29% horse meat

[JoanByers]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2262961/Beef-burgers-contaminated-HORSE-MEAT-sale-UK-Ireland-supermarkets-including-Tesco.html

It's hardly a surprise now is it. If you are going to eat beef burgers costing £2.52/kg, they clearly can't be made of beef - beef costs more than double that price.

www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=264291549

Cheap processed meat is just disgusting. Ham made from meat slurry (most ham on sale in this country), reconstituted chicken from Thailand (I found this in a sandwich on sale in the Co-Op).

[gaelicsheep]

And yes I did know this would be arseholes and eyelids from Irish cows, not prime steak mince.

[gaelicsheep]

X posted. See I'm not understanding your point. The label stated the burgers contained Irish beef, that's why I bought them. I feel exactly the same as you about budget burgers but by buying these ones I did not sign up to that. In your first post you implied that people like me deserve what they got, is that what you meant? I would like to be able to buy a budget product that uses the yucky bits of a high welfare animal without any unwanted and unlabelled extras. That should be possible, but Iknow now from a supermarket it is not.

[gaelicsheep]

Notwithstanding that, clearly in this case I was being naive and it turns out that the burgers probably contained bits of god knows what animals that had certainly not lived or died well. But the fact the burgers were economy does NOT mean this is OK when I was led to believe otherwise.

[photographerlady]

See a butcher used the whole animal. I have no problem with the offering of drippings, kidneys, organs etc. I do have a problem of cheap meat and byproduct being used coming from unknown and poorly regulated sources (please do remember it was not disclosed where that horse came from I am sure mystery cow meat is in monitored too). I think it's unacceptable to allow this type of budget burger anywhere.

Be thankfully you aren't in the states where there is constant scandal for having feces in the meat from not allowing the meat plant to clean out the guts properly and illegal immigrant workers dying on the job. This happens constantly at the main meat staughter houses providing cheap burgers (both budget and fast food).

[gaelicsheep]

I'm astounded how many people who eat meat with abandon turn their noses up at the idea of eating the rest. The animal.is still killed you know. I for one would rather eat the cheap bits of an animal that has lived and died well than the more expensive bits of one that hasn't. Shame so many people are hypocrites.

[gaelicsheep]

Photographerlady - do you think there's something wrong with that then? You think the people who buy the cheaper products that use ALL the poor animal, as opposed to just the expensive bits, deserve to have any old other crap thrown in there for good measure? Bits of other animals, bits of god knows what else, just because they are paying less? What a curious point of view.

[amillionyears]

I dont think we can Smudging.
Sounds like they dont even know themselves sometimes.
Which brings me back to , how often are all the products tested?
I dont think anyone has answered that one.

[flatpackhamster]

It would be if there was any indication that was the case, but there isn't.

[butterfingerz]

As a meat-eater, why is bad to eat ground offal in a burger/sausage or gelatin in sweets/jelly? Its not dirty, its just an animal by-product. 50 yrs ago, 'tripe' shops were just as popular as chip shops and chinese takeaways today. Offal usually contains far more nutrients than the muscle meat. I dont know why people turn their nose up at the idea of eating anything other than the muscle of an animal.

[photographerlady]

Food Inspectors on BBC this past week made a budget burger. 1/4 is made up of "beef" parts and not meat, this could be a whole host of things gaelicsheep such as brains, fat or other organs. Its not just pig noses and fat in sausages anymore. Most progressed meat is made of parts to some percentage. Burgers, pies, mince, nuggets. Just because it says "beef fat or chicken fat" doesn't mean there isn't a bit of organ attached as well grinded in.

[gaelicsheep]

photographerlady - please expand on your point, I'm not quite understanding

[Pixel]

Unfortunately there are a lot of horses surplus to requirements .
Apart from the wild ponies you would be hard-pushed to find any that haven't been given bute at some time in their lives, it's more or less like giving the kids some Calpol.

[lljkk]

Read about Silky Shark, Pixel. I worked out he was only 10yo when he was slaughtered; perfectly healthy animal, hazardous to enter the human food chain, just surplus to requirements.

[Pixel]

But farmers are supposed to follow strict rules aren't they? Permitted foodstuffs and drug treatments etc. So whatever part of the animal ends up in the burger (however unsavoury) should be free of such harmful 'ingredients', or so we are told not totally convinced tbh.
Horses, in this country anyway, aren't being reared for their meat so they aren't subject to the same restrictions. Most horses will be given bute at some time in their life (pain killer and anti-inflammatory) as it is normally effective and safe for them, but it is dangerous to humans. We don't worry about this as the horse isn't meant to be destined for human consumption.

I was in the vet's today getting my cat vaccinated and stupidly got my hand a bit too near to where the needle was going to go. The vet said ''we are not supposed to innoculate the owners!" so I said "never mind, Tesco is already giving us bute in the burgers!" (very topical I thought ). His reply to that was to tell me what other lovely ingredients there are likely to be. According to him there will be birds, rodents, insects etc and whatever else may have fallen into the machine.
Just a little something else to think about next time you fancy a burger which I never will again.

[photographerlady]

tbh if you are buying cheap burgers you know its all kidney skins and brains anyway.

[MissTrust]

Agree with PurpleStorm and others. Nothing against eating horse meat per se, it's the barefaced deception by the big supermarkets/brands that is wrong. And is it really OK to think that if we pay peanuts for our food (?) we can fully expect to be lied to about what we're really consuming. It shows the utter lack of ethics and scruples these money-worshipping corporates have.

And Tesco are no longer trustworthy in my eyes. I bought a pack of Tesco breaded mushrooms over Xmas only to find a pork sausage among them, coated in breadcrumbs, attempting to resemble a mushroom! Was horrified. I don't eat pig. What is animal product doing anywhere near a vegetarian food?!

I phoned Tesco to let them know about this. With no sense of guilt or apology, they offered to refund the cost of this item to me, just this once! So what, if it happened again, I wouldn't even be offered my money back next time round! I told them to keep their £2.50 and consider my custom lost.

[Blu]

Hoping thats better than shop bread, but it still has to be made from ingredients!

Flour, dried yeast, salt, sugar, olive oil or butter and some tap water is all that goes in my bread maker - what could be dodgy in those ingrediects?

[amillionyears]

Very good point
Some people have said that a proper butcher is actually cheaper for some meat than in a supermarket.
They also have cheaper cuts and different sorts of what should be good quality meat sometimes too.
But, as someone mentioned on here I think, they are not open at all hours of the day and night. And they need a seperate visit, so not often easy in terms of time.

Would say to people, that, in the ones I have been in at least, butchers are very easy to oblige, and enjoy discussing meat cuts and all prices with everyone that walks through their doors. I think they know they have to be anyway, so that they dont lose any more business to the supermarkets.

[brettgirl2]

All these people smugly stating that's why they only eat finest steak mince are somewhat missing the point. This utter crap is all that some people can afford whatever sacrifices they make make elsewhere . I doubt many people buy them out of choice!

[amillionyears]

ew.

I used to eat an occasional hotdog.
Have probably only eaten one in the last 5 years.
Shame! It was nice too!

gelatine. After BSE, I tried to avoid a lot of it for years.
Have to say I have relaxed a bit on that.

chewing gum. Never was a fan.

bread. we have a bread maker.
Hoping thats better than shop bread, but it still has to be made from ingredients!

[mam29]

There is "filler" .... and there is "MEM" !

"MEM" is "mechanically extruded meat" .... which can include anything from gristle to bone powder !

Animal bones are passed through mechanical scrapers to extrude the last particles of "tissue". This is added to beefbugers, sausages, pet foods etc..

But the worst contents are in "hotdogs" ... a fact that gives them the same quality as dog food. These contents can include any legally-edible "meat" plus rusks, and all sorts of chemicals and enhancers and flavouring.

yuck

.

[mam29]

definition of meat


The Food Standards Agency has two classifications for burger products - standard and economy.

A standard beefburger can only be classified as such if it comprises a minimum of 62% beef. Similarly, a chicken (or other poultry) or rabbit burger must contain a minimum of 55% meat, and a pork burger 67% minimum pig meat.

The percentages take a tumble when it comes to economy or "value" burger products.

An economy beefburger must contain 47% meat - note, NOT beef!, a chicken burger 41% and a pork burger 50% pig meat.

"Meat" is defined as "skeletal muscle with naturally included or adherent fat and connective tissue" which has not been mechanically stripped from the carcass, delicious!

[mam29]

Im now worried about bread.

I want to know where and whats best to buy as pure as possible.

nothing nasty added.

I dont mind shorter life

I have a freezer.:)

All hose who say whats wrog with horsemeat its gourmet.

well facts are out

its the protein filler from holland thats the culprit.

They could face 1000euro fine not much punishment and deter them doing it again.

Its mostly likly ground up horse bones/carcass imported from argentina/brazil added to british beef-mockery eh might give argentina a chuckle.

As for stuff labelled british it means packed in britain meat could come from elsewhere unless it has red tractor sign.

The fact uk factory still open and supplying iceland yet irish one shut baffles me. They should halt production, clean factort and work out exact source of supplier and check they clean again.

Im hoping its not all icecream. might get icecream maker.

I knew about gelatine as used to be veggie so knew some things.

river cottage highlighted few thngs in past too.

you need to be scinetist to understand the ingrediants really and some have vaugue words like seasoning its so hard.