Horsemeat in Our Food

Queenrider · Advanced

Horsemeat in Our Food

Barnmice Media · Well Schooled

Is anybody else worried that we'll soon learn of horse meat in our food here in North America?

Jackie Cochran · Advanced

I suspect that I've already have eaten some, and not in hamburger or packaged meat either.

Around a year ago I noticed that the steaks I get (never the most expensive, I spend the money on riding) started not tasting like beef. I love eating steak, I've eaten steak in three countries, range fed, feedlot beef, all types, and all of a sudden I am eating what is supposed to be steak from beef and I no longer enjoy the taste. In fact I don't like the taste at all. I've also noticed a lot more connective tissue in the meat.

I no longer buy beef or order it in restaurants.

If I am wrong about the meat not being beef I am wondering what in the world they are putting into the beef to make it taste so different.

Jackie Cochran · Advanced

You are probably right Queenrider, that it still probably comes from cattle. Just think, eating old dairy cows that have been pumped full of hormones and antibiotics their whole lives.

The steaks we got in Chile and Uruguay were fresh (I remember my mother lamenting the lack of aging, of course the refrigeration was not as reliable down there 50 years ago.) In Uruguay we often passed herds of steer that probably never saw a piece of grain in their lives, on hoof being driven by the gauchos on horseback to the slaughter house at the edge of Montivideo, no money wasted on feedlots there! These cattle were rangy, not the plump steer we see in the pastures here in the USA. Instead of hamburger joints there were big restaurants that broiled the steaks in front of you on open flames. This was not the more expensive type of American beef from pedigreed corn fed herds, but even so I never doubted that I was eating beef in Chile, Uruguay, Argentina or Brazil, mutton, lamb and pork just tasted too different to be able to confuse the different species of meat.

And when we came back to the USA in the early 1960's the meat was so much better here than in South America, even the chuck steaks tasted pretty good (my parents were thrifty!). So sad it all has gone down hill to today's mediocrity in the food department.

Today's beef may look red, but it tastes grey.

Barnmouser Ash · Grand Prix

I hear Ikea's Swedish Meatballs apparently have horsemeat... Hmm.

I would be less opposed if horse meat was regulated. I don't want to eat Bute!

Jackie Cochran · Advanced

I have some land, I supposed I could get some calves and raise them myself.

The problem is that I would probably name them, train them to halter, break them to saddle and go off riding my steer into the sunset. Are there any easy gaited cattle breeds?

Barnmouser Ash · Grand Prix

LOL, Jackie! My mother told me stories when I was younger of a cow she used to ride! Have you seen the video of the gal who trained her cow to not only ride, but jump?

On topic, I try to avoid things that resemble beef in general. I eat chicken, dolphin-safe tuna, and occasionally turkey or ham, but for the most part I eat a vegetarian diet. Not really a choice thing per se, just what I tend to prefer eating. That said, I hope I don't hear of any surprises in my occasional breakfast sausage! They're too yummy to give up :(

MagsNMe · Advanced

There's a Bison and Elk farm down the road that I get some of my meat from. The rest is from a grocery delivery service that does organic grass fed beef and if I ever find out that it's not, I'll scream blue bloody murder because I pay dearly for it! I sometimes get moose or deer from a friend too, now that's yummy!

I'm glad that this is happening, truthfully. Maybe now we can overhaul the system. We give our horses too many things that should not be in the food chain. I know in Ft Macleod they do raise some horses specifically for slaughter, the remainder arrive there through the unfortunate route.

When will we solve our problem?

Barnmouser Ash · Grand Prix

Mags - I totally agree with the system overhaul. I try not to think about all of the things in our food that are not required to be posted; nevermind the whole FDA mafia nonsense (I have to pay for you to "approve" my food/medicine/etc as "safe"? Um what?!) What is the reason we can't seem to have purely natural FOOD, and warn about possible toxins/etc, rather than having an oversaturated market of chemicals pressed into chicken nugget shapes and the minority (see: expensive) foods are the ones that have to make a name for themselves solely based on just being plain ole real food?!

Does that make sense or have I just gone off my rocker? :)

-- Edited by Barnmouser Ash on Tuesday 26th of February 2013 11:21:08 AM

Barnmice Media · Well Schooled

Interesting insight you've all provided so far. I'll have to agree that beef just doesn't taste the same Jackie! I was blessed with growing up on grass fed cattle from my step-uncles farm. I refuse to eat steaks from the supermarket or ordered in a steak house. To me it doesn't smell or taste right!

Scary to think about what is going into our food and what our meat source actually is/could be.

Barnmouser Ash · Grand Prix

I sadly grew up on grocery store ground beef and steaks, so anything with some seasoning on it tastes good to me! Of course, now that I'm married to a sort of personal chef, I've become something of a food snob. Spaghetti-O's and Wendy's fries are my weakness, I will admit.

What do you all think of the news from Africa of donkey, water buffalo, and even ZEBRA meat in their meat supplies?

Jackie Cochran · Advanced

I am not very suprised about the news from Africa. Non-adulterated meat for everyone (i.e. not just the well-off) is one of the signs of an advanced thechnological civilization--at least I thought so until the news of the contamination in Europe was reported.
I suspect that with the water buffalo, zebras and donkeys they do not have to worry as much about the contamination from bute and other drugs. However I would not eat steaks or meat cooked rare over there, no worming means parasite loads.

deb · Well Schooled

Yes, my whole family are worried. The dog and I are the ONLY ones who are NOT veggies... so the veggies in my family are besides themselves with the whole idea of animal genes in the veggies and grains.. grossed out at the horse meat mixed in with the beef... and as all of us are horse lovers (animal lovers in general actually), killing horses is abhorant for us period, let alone putting it in with meat that is supposed to be something else. My breed is the breed that is slaughtered most (stbs.) so for us it is even worse, everytime I go to the barn and look my three in the eye, I cringe.

My husband grew up on a working farm, and turned veggie at 18... looking at the animals that were going to slaughter at the sales, looking them in the eyes... it turned him from the 'hunter, gatherer type" that he was raised to be, to his true self, a vegitarian, and animal rights activist...

my family does not preach to anyone else, but when it comes to putting a different plant or animal in a foodstuff, no matter the foodstuff, you are abusing a basic right-- not to mention grossing us out!!!

cheers,

deb

Barnmice Media · Well Schooled

Jackie,

Interesting that you mention the parasite loads the water buffalo, zebras and donkeys could have. Our boxes of horse dewormer state "Horses must not be slaughtered for human consumption within 32 days of treatment." That is for Ivermectin, I've seen Moxidectin boxes state 60-65 days.

Barnmouser Ash · Grand Prix

Apart from my animal-loving side that screams "why are you eating Merrylegs?!"... I am appalled that food stated to be one thing is really something else. What if someone had a fatal allergy to horse meat, or what have you? It seems more than fraudulent; it seems downright criminal to try to pass a product meant for consumption off as something else. I already have a hard enough time buying "juice" and whatnot that is full of words I can't even say. What's the reason I can't just buy plain ole juice and add the sugar myself?

Glad I plan to grow my food supply from organic seeds. I can't grow everything, but I will certainly be attempting to buy local, trustworthy options for the things I can't produce myself.

That saying "Eat well. Stay fit. Die anyway." only goes so far in my book...

Figarocubed · Advanced

In defense of dairy beef, one of the finest steaks I ever ate was from a Holstein. The barbeque was a gathering on the dairy farm in western Wisconsin.

Most dairy cattle take longer to reach finishing weight than most beef breeds. I DO see a lot of Holsteins in the feedlots on the way to the ranch. Steers and cull heifers, I imagine, the products of freshening cows.

I'm a confirmed Cavewoman. Love meat! Ironically, engaged to a vegetarian city boy, who occasionally eats fish.

I've never tasted horse (that I know of) and do not have a problem with the consumption of horsemeat. Lots of hungry people in the world. Why let that good protein go to waste?

-- Edited by Figarocubed on Saturday 2nd of March 2013 03:36:17 PM