One can’t help but notice the recent fascination the urban media has had with horsemeat. It’s particularly curious for the North American media to be so obsessed, being the consumption of horsemeat is virtually non-existent on this continent.
Yet we saw a constant stream of news reports that the so-called horsemeat scandal had spread to another part of Europe. It almost seemed the mainstream media had a wish that it spread to North America. The media implication seems to be that horsemeat is somehow bad, although the product is not a health hazard. What is clear is that if the meat of concern was pork or poultry it would not be newsworthy.
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The issue started when horsemeat DNA was found mixed in with beef in products like hamburger and sausage. It’s never stated how much horsemeat was in the suspect meat product — it could be a millionth of a part. But whatever the quantity, most consumers naively expect hamburger to be made from only beef. That’s not quite always the case, as the word “hamburger” only assumes it is beef contrary to its pork-like name. For it to be beef only, it should be labelled “beefburger.” Even that can be misleading as many pre-packaged burgers contain flavouring additives, even cheese and fillers like bread crumbs.
It would seem that reading the label is rather important when buying hamburger — it could contain some surprises. Perhaps having horsemeat mixed in with beef may be the least of a consumer’s concern — at least it’s a natural meat and not a cereal filler product. Old rumours still circulate that some store-bought hamburger patties actually contain sawdust as a filler — but that may just relate to how they taste.
Finding horsemeat DNA mixed in with other meats is no surprise to anyone who has toured European slaughter plants. I have witnessed sheep and cattle being slaughtered and processed at the same time and on the same floor in fairly large facilities in Ireland and Switzerland. Such a practice does not occur in this country in medium to large plants.
Multi-species slaughtering in Canada tends to be restricted to smaller speciality plants and local abattoirs. There is certainly crossover potential in further-processing meat facilities, where companies will use and mix pork, poultry and beef to make a variety of manufactured meat products.
Be that as it may, it is certainly not dangerous, and neither is the inclusion of horsemeat. I note news reports don’t mention that the DNA of any other meat was also found in the samples, which is curious, but then again that would not be newsworthy. So what’s the big deal with this case ? Well it’s just because it involves horsemeat.
Most North Americans and many Europeans tend to have a romantic notion of the horse as a noble and majestic creature. Besides being handsome animals, they have been stalwart companions to humans in work, war, and recreation. That puts them in the emotional category for most people, which does not include eating them for food.
I suspect horses are less emotional, and don’t worry much about whether they are eaten, burned or rot in the ground after they expire. However, humans somewhere in the past discovered that eating their noble friend is really no different from eating less noble species like hogs, cattle and sheep.
I can personally attest to that, having happily consumed quantities of a Dutch delicacy called “rookvlees.” In its correct form, that delicacy is made from thinly sliced, smoked horsemeat. I have yet to find this delicious product in Calgary and have to import it from Vancouver.
Another curious aspect to the discovery of horsemeat in some European food products is how this is possible, considering that horsemeat is an expensive, exotic meat. One could understand the use of cereals, pork, mutton and heck even sawdust in hamburger as cheaper fillers to extend the use of more expensive beef.
But horsemeat is not deemed to be a low-cost filler choice, unless some processor has found a cheap source. Since some dubious eastern European suppliers have been implicated, perhaps this involves roadkill, rustling or worse — just a guess, of course. But then has anyone considered that this may all be just incidental and the inclusion of horsemeat is minuscule at best?
It reminds one of the outlandish allegations where overzealous green and consumer groups state our food is contaminated and saturated with pesticides. That sounds alarming, until one discovers they are referring to microscopic parts per million or even per billion.
Interestingly, all of this horsemeat publicity has seen a new tasting interest develop in some European consumers. Speciality meat market outlets in France report an increase in horsemeat sales since all the media fuss began.
That’s good news for a particular processor here in Alberta. North America’s largest processors and marketers of horsemeat, Bouvry Exports Ltd., operate a horse feedlot and slaughter plant in Fort MacLeod with additional facilities in Quebec and Shelby, Montana.
Most of their meat production is exported to Japan and Europe. Although it takes awhile to work its way down the line, one expects that more publicity and interest in the product should mean more demand for horsemeat and that should see higher prices for cull horses at sales across Western Canada. It would seem that the mainstream media’s fascination with the so-called horsemeat scandal may have a positive, long-term marketing outcome — but that’s probably not what they had intended.
