Melanie Leyva
April 9, 2013
English 114B
Professor Morinini
European Horsemeat Scandals
As
consumers, we expect that whatever we read on a label at a store or a title on the
food menu at a fast food/restaurant is correct, and in fact what it says is
what we are going to be eating. But that
does not always seem to be the case.
Since the different meat companies do not check or verify the product
they receive from sub suppliers are genuine.
In several cases throughout Europe, there have been a number of
horsemeat scandals ranging from department stores, fast food restaurants and
grocery stores. I think this will
continue to happen until companies take extra measure to ensure that their
product is in fact 100% beef.
Across
Europe in Ikea stores they sell a very popular dish, hot and ready meatballs,
which their consumers love. The Czech
Republic ran tests on these meatballs and found traces of horse DNA in a bag of
their product. A temporary recall on
these meatballs was made so that authorities could insure whether all the products
were infected or not. “The trust of our
customers is of outmost importance, which is why the batch of meatballs was
immediately withdrawn and we are now taking this extra precautionary measure,”
said Anders Laennartsson, of Ikea food services. The extra precautionary measure that was
being made was to start “its own in-house DNA analyses of all meat products,”
which I think is a great idea since they want consumers to continue buying this
product and to be satisfied. Also they
were going to try and become stricter with labeling products making
manufacturers put the country of origin and slaughter. So consumers can be informed on where the
product is coming from and make a better decision whether to buy it or not.
British
and Irish Burger King consumers may have to get ready for a shortage in some of
the products sold at this fast food restaurant.
Since Burger King, “stopped buying beef from an Irish meat processor
whose patties were found to contain traces of horsemeat.” The Irish meat processor Silvercrest had to
stop the beef production line and recall burgers from shelves of local food
stores. There was no evidence to prove
that Burger King’s beef was contaminated.
The horsemeat scandal was a touchy subject in Britain and Ireland since they
do not typically eat horsemeat. In
addition people became worried after Mary Creagh said, “several horses
slaughtered last year had tested positive for phenylbutazone, an
anti-inflammatory drug given to horses that can cause cancer in humans.” But the Food Standard Agency confirmed “no
horsemeat in the current scandal contained phenlybutazone.”
Taco
Bell has also “withdrawn its taco beef products from sale in British and
Spanish outlets after finding some beef contained more than 10% horse
DNA.” Bird’s Eye tested two meals off
the shelves that contained “low levels” of horse DNA. A Taco Bell spokesperson said “testing revealed
ingredients from one yet unnamed supplier in Europe had tested positive for
horse meat.” Since Taco Bell’s first
incident in finding horsemeat in their beef, they started testing their meat by
themselves. Horsemeat was also found at
a Burger Manufacturing Company in Wales.
“Industry test results revealed that more than 1% contamination will be
placed on FSA’s (Food Standards Authority) website immediately, but summaries
of all products tested will only be reported quarterly.” I think this was a smart move on the FSA’s
(Food Standards Authority) part so that the people can be informed of where the
contaminated beef is coming from.
In the
United Kingdom, “Irish investigators found horse and pig DNA in numerous
hamburger products,” provided by the company Findus. Even though eating these products containing
horsemeat and pork are not a health risk, the real problem is mislabeling and
false advertisement. It is like going to
a restaurant and ordering a chicken sandwich and having them give you a chicken
sandwich tainted with fish. They are
both edible products, just not what you ordered or wanted. In the UK eating horsemeat is a taboo and it
is not a common meal like beef. “The
discovery of pig DNA in beef products is of particular concern to Jews and
Muslims, whose dietary laws forbid the consumption of pork products.” Mislabeling in this case is really unfair to
the Muslims and Jews since the consumption of horsemeat and pig meat go against
what they believe in. It is one of the
worst things that can happen, according to their religion.
On the
legal side of these horsemeat scandals nobody wants to take
responsibility. It is more of a blame
game because no one wants to have the finger pointed at them or be under the
spotlight. “A major company under
scrutiny called one of its suppliers a “villain” responsible for the fraud. The supplier in turn insisted it was “fooled”
by a sub supplier.” I feel on the other
hand of this situation the suppliers are blaming everyone down the supply chain
so that eventually they will have no leads and the scandal would basically be
swept under the rug. The big meat supply
companies are willing to say and do anything possible to fix the horsemeat
situation to gain back the trust of the consumers. “Officials discussed what tests are possible,
what laboratory capacity is needed and what can be done to protect consumer
confidence.” CEO Erick Lehagre, from the
meat company Comiguel, made a statement saying “we were victimized” by a French
supplier. I agree that the company was
victimized to a certain extent because they also didn’t know the meat was
contaminated. Looking at the situation
from a different perspective Comiguel should not have based business only on
the trust of the sub suppliers. They
should have tested the beef themselves in their own laboratory or asked the sub
suppliers for verification or proof that in fact the beef they are buying is
100% beef product.
Furthermore,
I think what needs to be done to fix the problem like mislabeling products is
to have laws to ensure that companies must follow them. Reading these kinds of articles happening in
another country makes me wonder whether or not it is happening here in the U.S
and we just have not been informed about it yet. Knowing that this has happened makes me a
little sick to my stomach. Good thing my
family and I do not eat a lot of beef or else I would be a bit paranoid.
Works Cited
" Horsemeat scandal: Ikea
withdraws all meatballs from UK stores | UK news | The Guardian ." Latest US news, world news, sport and comment
from the Guardian | guardiannews.com | The
Guardian . N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2013. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/feb/25/horsemeat-scandal-ikea-meatballs uk?INTCMP=SRCH>.
" Horsemeat scandal: Taco
Bell withdraws UK beef products | UK news | The Guardian ." Latest US news, world news, sport and comment from the
Guardian | guardiannews.com | The Guardian
. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2013. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/mar/01/horsemeat-taco-bell-withdraws-beef-uk>.
"Battle over blame after
horse meat found in beef products - CNN.com." CNN.com International - Breaking, World, Business, Sports,
Entertainment and Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2013. <http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/10/world/europe/uk-horsemeat-probe>.
LAWLESS, JILL. "Burger
King Horsemeat: Chain Drops Silvercrest Food, Supplier Linked To Scandal." Breaking News and Opinion on
The Huffington Post. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/24/burgerkinghorsemeat_n_2541347.html>.
"Battle over blame after
horse meat found in beef products - CNN.com." CNN.com International - Breaking, World, Business, Sports,
Entertainment and Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2013.
<http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/10/world/europe/uk-horsemeat-probe>.
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