Just Say Neigh to Horsemeat

When was the last time you enjoyed horsemeat? Well, if you live in the UK, chances are you have unwittingly enjoyed remnants of some nag last week.

The revelation of horsemeat being combined with beef sold in Ireland and England has major grocery supermarkets on a huge defensive in an attempt to claim ignorance that suppliers have been including horsemeat and ‘beef trim’ (whatever the heck that is) as beef. In fact, Ireland’s food agency, the Food Safety Authority claims that recent testing revealed up to 29% of the contents labeled as beef actually contained horsemeat. Britain’s Food Standards Agency claim to also be investigating.

The Silvercrest processing plant at the heart of the scandal is under the microscope for supplying supermarket giant Tesco with beef burger products containing horsemeat. Another supermarket giant, The Cooperative Group, conducted its own DNA testing and determined 17.7% horsemeat in particular beef products.

According to sources, beef is Ireland’s number one food export, and Tesco is Ireland’s number one customer accounting for almost 10% of the country’s €1.9 billion annual beef exports.

Politicians, activists and civil servants alike are now calling for accurate food labeling laws to protect consumers from the nefarious practices of those who include filler products. But one must wonder how such practices can occur unchecked for so long. Isn’t it reasonable to assume that these mammoth supermarket chains have employees within their fold who must have known the practice was occurring?

It turns out that including horsemeat in beef products is not illegal, so long as it is appropriately labelled as such. This means when all is said and done, violators and their corporate partners will, at best, face infractions for failing to properly label their beef products – the proverbial slap on the wrist.

What this also means is that consumers who purchased ‘beef’ overpaid dramatically and that Tesco and The Cooperative Group profited by the same degree. Follow the money, criminal investigators will tell you, and motives will soon become crystal clear.