The 'Horse Debate' - Why do we keep horsing around?

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