This is less an issue
of horse meat but more one of deception; selling something as beef
that isn’t. In the 80’s there was a similar issue of horsemeat
being discovered in a certain brand of pie but back then, we had no
easy way of telling what meat products contained. But 30 years on we
do……so why is this happening?
Is it a simple mistake?
Is it a matter of some suppliers conning these multi-million pound
supermarkets and food manufactures? Is it that the supermarkets and
food suppliers no longer care about the quality of the food they
supply to us? Or is it the continuing price pressure put on suppliers
by supermarkets? My belief is it is probably all of the above.
I even wonder if these
large companies are rapidly going the way of the banks. Organisations
have got so big that their focus is now on money and shareholders and
that we ,their customers, have been forgotten. In turn we, the
customers, are losing faith in them.
What is it that we are
buying when we pick up packet food? I am no longer sure. Some years
ago I was a technologist working for one of these food manufacturers
and supplying supermarkets. Then, I was confident and proud of the
quality of the food we sold. I can only think that now, the the
financial pressures has meant that quality teams have been reduced to
such an extent, that they can no longer work effectively. At the same
time, we have reduced funding to the FSA and trading standards, so
even our back-stop has been weakened.
What should we do? Buy
locally is one answer but that has cost implications, as well as
practical ones. Although I do think with clever buying, cheaper cuts
etc. we can mitigate the cost. The reality however, is we can’t do
without the supermarkets - so let’s do more cooking from scratch!
I know we don’t have
the time… but perhaps to avoid not knowing what we are serving, we
need to somehow find the time, because if we don’t perhaps we are
getting what we deserve!
Andy @AndyBakeIT
