McDonald's may be promising an ethical McMuffin but 5% of European ready meals still appear to be contaminated
The upside of the horsemeat scandal was that mass-produced meat was going to get better, remember? The chains that had been sourcing their "beef" from anyone who could provide something red, cheap and meat-like promised to examine their supply chains, worry about animal welfare and even buy meat closer to home, from farmers with whom they had a relationship.
So we should no longer see the sort of contractors' chains beginning in east European knacker's yards that, it appears, were able to produce particularly cheap meat late last year because of a glut of unwanted equines after a ban on ponies and traps on Romanian roads. Interpol is still investigating.
So, it's three months since the first revelation, via the Irish food safety authority, of horse DNA in burgers sold to Tesco, Aldi, Burger King and others. A stream of horse (and pig and donkey) revelations followed. But has anything on the high street changed?
Shoppers' habits have. Business at traditional butchers' shops may be as much as 30% up, anecdotal evidence suggests, and sales of all frozen foods are down 13%, compared with last year. Ready meals are still suffering: a Europe-wide survey of more than 4,000 products indicated this week that nearly 5% of the beef products tested contained more than 1% horse DNA (though no products sourced in Britain were found to be contaminated).
Among the mass restaurant chains, it is McDonald's that has reacted most positively to the change in market conditions. It already sourced its beef from the UK and Ireland, though as we discovered that was no sure guarantee of quality.
Now, in addition, McDonald's has promised to source all its pork – one of the ingredients of a McMuffin – in the UK, from pig farms certified by the RSPCA. This is impressive, because welfare standards for pigs are better in Britain than the rest of Europe. We're talking basics such as natural light and space in which to move around and lie down, the extra expense of which is one of the reasons so much cheap pork product comes from Denmark – and that a quarter of British pig farmers have gone out of business in recent years.
By comparison, Burger King merely says "we strive to source locally where possible", making no promises on its meat, except that its beef is 100% beef (heard that before) and its pork and chicken "meet recognised welfare standards in country of origin"– a good thing, since otherwise the stuff would be illegal.
Among the other chains, Wetherspoons, which owns more UK pubs than anyone else, says that it has sourced its beef in Britain for "at least five years" but it is now DNA testing everything. Tragus, the hedge-fund-and-venture-capital-backed group that owns Cafe Rouge, Belgo, Strada, Bella Italia and others, says it too has tested all its processed meat products. Its beef currently "comes from South America".
The country's biggest caterer, Sodexo, which supplies the army, hospitals and many schools, withdrew its frozen beef products in late February after finding horse in them, provoking speculation that the Queen may have eaten horse at the Sodexo-catered Royal Ascot. Sodexo says products are only being reintroduced after DNA testing.
Tesco was hurt most by the storm of confused outrage that followed "horsegate". It made its own announcements in early March in a series of plangent "mea culpa" adverts.
The campaign was a gloss, however. Tesco said only that it would try to source more meat locally. From July all chicken will be British, CEO Philip Clarke subsequently announced. All beef was already "from the British Isles". But "British Isles" is his polite way of including Ireland, where the horsemeat scandal originated. Two-thirds of the 400,000 tonnes of beef – the product of more than one million animals – that the UK imports annually comes from Ireland. That explains why "going local", McDonald's is keeping open its option to source from there.
Ireland has had its share of food scandals – not least the dioxin pork scare of 2008, which appeared to come from under-regulated farmers feeding toxic rubbish to their pigs. But the Irish learned a lesson – they powered up their meat inspection and thus it was their regulators who first uncovered the horsemeat scandal back in January. The British equivalent, cut back by the coalition, said it wasn't their job to look at what was in the burgers. Without the Irish inspectors we might still be dining on horse. Tesco's Philip Clarke said yesterday he was as "sure as sure can be" that the horsemeat saga was over. But I am going to buy British, at the butcher's. Reported by guardian.co.uk 11 hours ago.
The upside of the horsemeat scandal was that mass-produced meat was going to get better, remember? The chains that had been sourcing their "beef" from anyone who could provide something red, cheap and meat-like promised to examine their supply chains, worry about animal welfare and even buy meat closer to home, from farmers with whom they had a relationship.
So we should no longer see the sort of contractors' chains beginning in east European knacker's yards that, it appears, were able to produce particularly cheap meat late last year because of a glut of unwanted equines after a ban on ponies and traps on Romanian roads. Interpol is still investigating.
So, it's three months since the first revelation, via the Irish food safety authority, of horse DNA in burgers sold to Tesco, Aldi, Burger King and others. A stream of horse (and pig and donkey) revelations followed. But has anything on the high street changed?
Shoppers' habits have. Business at traditional butchers' shops may be as much as 30% up, anecdotal evidence suggests, and sales of all frozen foods are down 13%, compared with last year. Ready meals are still suffering: a Europe-wide survey of more than 4,000 products indicated this week that nearly 5% of the beef products tested contained more than 1% horse DNA (though no products sourced in Britain were found to be contaminated).
Among the mass restaurant chains, it is McDonald's that has reacted most positively to the change in market conditions. It already sourced its beef from the UK and Ireland, though as we discovered that was no sure guarantee of quality.
Now, in addition, McDonald's has promised to source all its pork – one of the ingredients of a McMuffin – in the UK, from pig farms certified by the RSPCA. This is impressive, because welfare standards for pigs are better in Britain than the rest of Europe. We're talking basics such as natural light and space in which to move around and lie down, the extra expense of which is one of the reasons so much cheap pork product comes from Denmark – and that a quarter of British pig farmers have gone out of business in recent years.
By comparison, Burger King merely says "we strive to source locally where possible", making no promises on its meat, except that its beef is 100% beef (heard that before) and its pork and chicken "meet recognised welfare standards in country of origin"– a good thing, since otherwise the stuff would be illegal.
Among the other chains, Wetherspoons, which owns more UK pubs than anyone else, says that it has sourced its beef in Britain for "at least five years" but it is now DNA testing everything. Tragus, the hedge-fund-and-venture-capital-backed group that owns Cafe Rouge, Belgo, Strada, Bella Italia and others, says it too has tested all its processed meat products. Its beef currently "comes from South America".
The country's biggest caterer, Sodexo, which supplies the army, hospitals and many schools, withdrew its frozen beef products in late February after finding horse in them, provoking speculation that the Queen may have eaten horse at the Sodexo-catered Royal Ascot. Sodexo says products are only being reintroduced after DNA testing.
Tesco was hurt most by the storm of confused outrage that followed "horsegate". It made its own announcements in early March in a series of plangent "mea culpa" adverts.
The campaign was a gloss, however. Tesco said only that it would try to source more meat locally. From July all chicken will be British, CEO Philip Clarke subsequently announced. All beef was already "from the British Isles". But "British Isles" is his polite way of including Ireland, where the horsemeat scandal originated. Two-thirds of the 400,000 tonnes of beef – the product of more than one million animals – that the UK imports annually comes from Ireland. That explains why "going local", McDonald's is keeping open its option to source from there.
Ireland has had its share of food scandals – not least the dioxin pork scare of 2008, which appeared to come from under-regulated farmers feeding toxic rubbish to their pigs. But the Irish learned a lesson – they powered up their meat inspection and thus it was their regulators who first uncovered the horsemeat scandal back in January. The British equivalent, cut back by the coalition, said it wasn't their job to look at what was in the burgers. Without the Irish inspectors we might still be dining on horse. Tesco's Philip Clarke said yesterday he was as "sure as sure can be" that the horsemeat saga was over. But I am going to buy British, at the butcher's. Reported by guardian.co.uk 11 hours ago.