In 2013, the words “contamination” and “tainted” hardly covers the extent of the issue especially concerning the amount of horsesmeat found. Subsequent testing determined that the contaminated Comigel products sold by Aldi and others contained 30% to 100% horsemeat instead of beef.
Do you remember the horse meat scandal of 2013? I don’t think saying it
sent shockwaves around the world is much of an overstatement. Horsemeat
masquerading as beef!
But should it have been, really? Accurate and reliable food labeling has
long, long been a problem in many countries.
Findus was front and center of many of the horsemeat scandal reports. But so
was Aldi.
“Aldi (among other food vendors) had an issue back in February 2013 with a
supplier who provided them with horsemeat-tainted products, but that issue
has since been resolved and did not affect consumers in the U.S.”[1]
As the story unfolded, the horsemeat scandal that affected Aldi and other
food vendors in Sweden, France and the UK reportedly stemmed from their
unknowingly receiving horsemeat-tainted products from the supplier Comigel,
who in turn blamed the problem on a subsupplier.
Comigel CEO Erick Lehagre told French news agency Agence France-Presse that
his company had been “fooled” by a French supplier. “We were victims,” he
said, according to AFP.
Naturally.
The words “contamination” and “tainted” hardly covers the extent of the
issue especially concerning the amount of horsesmeat found. Subsequent
testing determined that the contaminated Comigel products sold by Aldi and
others contained 30% to 100% horsemeat instead of beef.
What About the U.S.?
In a 2015 Money Talks News article entitled, “Horse Meat Found in Other
Ground Meat Sold in U.S.”, they reported:
“Research into the mislabeling of meats has uncovered horse meat mixed in
with other ground meat sold in the U.S. commercial market.
“For a study of ground meat products sold in the U.S., researchers from the
Food Science Program at Chapman University in California analyzed 48 samples
and found that 10 were mislabeled.
“One sample was entirely mislabeled with regard to what type of animal meat
it contained. Nine samples had meat from an additional type of animal mixed
in. In two of those cases, the mix contained horse meat, which is illegal to
sell in the U.S.”[2]
Where did the horsemeat come from and how did it get there? European
countries aren’t the only ones with serious issues. We the public cannot
really safely assume that any of this has been truly rectified and not going
on right now, undetected.
Horsemeat Scandal Trial
The Guardian reporting on the horsemeat scandal trial in January 2019,
states:
“The trial of four people accused of an elaborate fraud that tricked
consumers into buying ready-made meals containing horsemeat instead of beef
has opened in Paris.
An international scandal erupted in 2013 when the mislabelled food was
discovered by the Irish authorities in frozen burgers labelled “pure beef”.
“A wider investigation found horsemeat in ready-made meals on sale in
several high-street supermarkets in Britain and in pre-prepared dishes
across Europe, including those used by hospital caterers and in school
lunches.
“About 4.5m dishes – including lasagne, moussaka, chilli con carne and
beefburgers made with horsemeat passed off as beef – were believed to have
been distributed around 13 countries.[3]
13 countries!
Those in the dock were accused of:
“. . . having sold the meat as “boned beef” that had been cut and prepared
in France, while allegedly knowing it was horsemeat that had been treated in
Romania, Belgium or Canada.”[4]
The BBC reported:
“The four men are accused of helping organise the sale of more than 500
tonnes of horsemeat in 2012—2013 to a subsidiary of Comigel, a French
company whose frozen meals were sold in more than a dozen European
countries.”
Another “is also accused of selling more than 200 tonnes of horsemeat mainly
in the form of beef merguez sausages.”[5]
The BBC also posted a handy timeline concerning the horsemeat scandal. Pay
particular attention to 3.
Horsemeat Scandal Timeline
The third point is a highly important one. Up to this point little to
nothing was said about the horsemeat potentially being contaminated because
of the drug Bute, the drug they no doubt were referring to.
Guilty as Charged
On April, 16, 2016, DW.com reported:
“A Paris criminal court on Tuesday found four men guilty of falsely labeling
horsemeat as beef, handing down fines and jail time for the role they played
in a Europe-wide food-fraud scandal.
“The scandal resulted in millions of industrialized beef dishes being pulled
from supermarket shelves after it was discovered that they contained
horsemeat despite being labeled as beef. The scam involved importing cheap
horsemeat from Belgium, Romania and Canada.”[6]
Tainted Horsemeat Remains
Meat from U.S. horses is tainted and will always be so. They are
administered a laundry list of drugs which bar their meat from entering the
human food chain.
Speaking of horsemeat entering the human food chain knowlingly and
surreptitiously Foodwatch.org states:
“But six years after the horse meat scandal, the situation is still
unsatisfactory and it is urgent that steps are taken to go much further.
“In theory, the traceability of food throughout the supply chain must be
guaranteed. In reality, this is far from being the case.”
Horse Slaughter Ban
It is high time the U.S. takes the lead on this issue. It is time we take
responsibility and stop being a chief supplier of toxic horsemeat dangerous
for human consumption by banning the slaughter of our horses.
Pending U.S. Legislation
H.R. 961, the Safeguard American Food Exports Act of 2019 (The SAFE Act)[8],
when it becomes law, will ban the slaughter of American horses for human
consumption at home and across our borders.
Regardless of anyone’s personal feelings about horse slaughter (is it right
or is it wrong?) it is certainly the right thing morally and ethically to
ban toxic U.S. horsemeat from entering the human food chain.
The passage of the SAFE Act is designed for and will accomplish this.
TAKE ACTION
Contact your U.S. Representative today and ask him or her to cosponsor and
vote H.R. 961 into law.
GO HERE for more information.
Please make a donation to
The Horse Fund, the publishers of Tuesday’s Horse,
who are monitoring horse related bills like H.R.961 in Washington D.C., and
lobbying hard for their passage. We have a tremendous opportunity this
Congress to finally outlaw the slaughter of American horses. Let’s do it!
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