[News] Horse DNA in Beef

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Dave

Dave

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Okay, so by now we all have heard about the horse DNA (note they have not said horse meat, merely horse DNA) in the beef sent to several countries. Do you care? If you found out you were eating horse as opposed to beef, would you even give a damn?

Personally, I wouldn't. Your thoughts?
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

I'd want to know ahead of time what meat I was eating. If I knew it was horse, then sure, I bet horse is delicious.
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
From what I've read (and that's not too much), there don't seem to be any safety concerns. I guess the big problem with some people is that they're not getting what was advertised. It's strange, I guess, but I didn't really get worked up about it. If it's safe and tastes normal, I'm fine. What really freaks me out are food recalls regarding fruits and vegetables with e.coli traces. Isn't spinach being recalled in some places right now?
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

Unless there are outstanding health issues, I am against it only in the "I like to know what I'm eating" kind of way.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Would it be different if it were cat or dog? (This is to everyone, not any specific person.)
 
Eriol

Eriol

There at least used to be issues because of vaccines, in that many were produced using horses (I'm a bit fuzzy on this, I imagine it's related to how chicken eggs are used today) and it made you more likely to have an allergic reaction to vaccines if you've eaten horse meat as a regular part of your diet.

I'd be against such from a fair-label perspective (if I bought what was labelled beef, I want beef damnit), but not because I wouldn't eat horse (or whatever animal) as long as it was proved to be slaughtered in a hygienic fashion.
 
Frank

Frank

I'd be annoyed, yes, but not any more annoyed than I am when something is advertised on a restaurant menu, for example, as having crab on it only for you to find out when your plate arrives that it's that bullshit imitation crab made from flavoured whitefish. Actually, cross that, horse tastes like richer beef, having had it before, I'm more mad about the imitation crab.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

On one trip to Houston as a child I twisted my dad's arm to take us to Jack in the Box. We did not have one where we lived, since we were having fast food I wanted to try something different. My dad was the only one of us to eat a hamburger. He sat there muttering...

"This shit tastes like Goat."

We did not believe him, and teased him. We all finish and leave, get back into the car, and turn on the radio... Then like some bad 40's bad movie...

"News is out that Jack in the Box was caught selling beef from Australia, that was mixed with KANGAROO MEAT. You can recognize the beef in question because it tastes like GOAT."

I am shocked that he did not throw up.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
blotsfan said:
This would be a big deal for Jewish people who
Keep kosher, as beef is ok but horse isn't
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How much DNA is bad, then? Is it possible that the plants used has traces while there is no appreciable amount of horse meat in the beef?
 
Gared

Gared

Personally, I wouldn't have an issue with it, aside from the fact that the company making the products is probably doing it to save money, but is still charging the full price as though it were 100% beef, and those full prices are being passed on to the wholesalers, retailers, and consumers. I do remember an issue with vaccines as Eriol stated, but my source is M*A*S*H, and I don't know how accurate that really is.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Dave said:
How much DNA is bad, then? Is it possible that the plants used has traces while there is no appreciable amount of horse meat in the beef?
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For kosher, no amount is acceptable. It can't even be prepared with utensils or equipment that touches non kosher meat.

And from the story I read, actual horse meat got mixed in with the beef at a Romanian slaughterhouse. Testing for the dna is the only way they have to tell what batches were affected.
 
Eriol

Eriol

Gared said:
Personally, I wouldn't have an issue with it, aside from the fact that the company making the products is probably doing it to save money, but is still charging the full price as though it were 100% beef, and those full prices are being passed on to the wholesalers, retailers, and consumers. I do remember an issue with vaccines as Eriol stated, but my source is M*A*S*H, and I don't know how accurate that really is.
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It's repeated a lot: http://survivalism.wolfeblog.net/component/content/article/23-peak-food/39-horse-meat-primer

That's about all I could find when googling it that it's an issue (and it references M*A*S*H). And my memory was off of that same episode, so somebody at some time thought that was true, and thus the episode, but is it true? Hell if I know. I've heard it referenced somewhere else too, but I can't find a source, so it could easily be false memory.

Way more whackos actually when searching, about how vaccines are the source of all evil, etc. /facepalm
 
Gared

Gared

Eriol said:
It's repeated a lot: http://survivalism.wolfeblog.net/component/content/article/23-peak-food/39-horse-meat-primer

That's about all I could find when googling it that it's an issue (and it references M*A*S*H). And my memory was off of that same episode, so somebody at some time thought that was true, and thus the episode, but is it true? Hell if I know. I've heard it referenced somewhere else too, but I can't find a source, so it could easily be false memory.

Way more whackos actually when searching, about how vaccines are the source of all evil, etc. /facepalm
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Yeah... I hate researching several topics because of the amount of whacko nut-job opinions that sprout up instead of real, scientific research. I was researching honey online recently (for mead making), and 90% of the reviews for specific honeys were all about how honey is a miracle cure for asthma, or how honey will make you invincible, or how so-and-so's grandmother was dying of cancer until she started using royal jelly products and eating a 2lb tub of honey each day, and now she's completely cured! Instead of actual reviews of the flavors of each varietal - which would have actually been useful.
 
Necronic

Necronic

Staff member
Dave said:
Okay, so by now we all have heard about the horse DNA (note they have not said horse meat, merely horse DNA) in the beef sent to several countries. Do you care? If you found out you were eating horse as opposed to beef, would you even give a damn?

Personally, I wouldn't. Your thoughts?
Click to expand...
Neigh, I whinny give a damn
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Ravenpoe said:
And from the story I read, actual horse meat got mixed in with the beef at a Romanian slaughterhouse.
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According to the BBC, everyone has been exonerated except for the French company, Spanghero, which is the one who changed the labels on the meat to beef.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

Partially relevant story:

In Taiwan (and possible in China too, perhaps Terrik or Khan can confirm) a lot of people, particularly the older generation, do not eat beef. The reason for this is that they grew up in a time when agriculture was still the main source of income for a lot of people, and a lot of farmers did not have farming equipment like tractors, so they strapped cattle to their plows and millstones. This meant that cattle were seen as companion animals, rather than food animals like pigs or poultry.

And whenever westerners ask me about why some Taiwanese people don't eat beef, I tell them it's sort of like how horses are seen as companion animals rather than food animals in the west. And they nod understandingly.

And now this thread is telling me people are actually okay with eating horse? Well now I'll have to start using dogs and cats as my analogy.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

bhamv3 said:
Partially relevant story:

In Taiwan (and possible in China too, perhaps Terrik or Khan can confirm) a lot of people, particularly the older generation, do not eat beef. The reason for this is that they grew up in a time when agriculture was still the main source of income for a lot of people, and a lot of farmers did not have farming equipment like tractors, so they strapped cattle to their plows and millstones. This meant that cattle were seen as companion animals, rather than food animals like pigs or poultry.

And whenever westerners ask me about why some Taiwanese people don't eat beef, I tell them it's sort of like how horses are seen as companion animals rather than food animals in the west. And they nod understandingly.

And now this thread is telling me people are actually okay with eating horse? Well now I'll have to start using dogs and cats as my analogy.
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Fuck yeah I'd eat a horse. Have you seen those things? I bet they make awesome steaks.
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

Didn't anyone notice that one of the companies in question was named Draap? That's the Dutch word for horse spelled backwards!
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

A) Horse is very nice tasting; more taste than beef, though sometimes a bit strong for my taste. Supermarket beef -> supermarket horse -> real beef -> real horse in order of "having more flavour".
B) Mixing horse in with beef is a problem because, on one hand, some religions don't eat horse and, on the other hand, in some countries horses aren't eaten as regularly (like rabbits, or snails, or frogs. I love all of them! We belgians eat whatever meat we can get our hands on :p)
C) The *main* problem besides that, is that the horse meat in question comes from horses declared "unfit for human consumption". For a variety of reasons, these horses weren't allowed to be packaged and sold as horse meat (which is actually more expensive than beef in Belgium, so go figure). Too much antibiotics, wrong feed, animals too old, whatever. It was supposed to go to beef feed supplements (I still think it's freaky that almost all industrial cattle and chicken feeds contain chicken, cow and horse meat - we're turning herbivores into omnivores).
 
tegid

tegid

I came here to say exactly A and C. I think these horses in particular were fed some medicine that's forbidden in horses bred for human consumption, but the levels in the end product are low enough so that there isn't a safety concern.
 
Yoshimickster

Yoshimickster

All I know is, make sure not to buy the horse meat from an illegal source in Texas or else Jessie Custer will force you to hang yourself! PREACHER!!!
 
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