Horse meat: Would Peter Boddy please feed a burger to Cordelia Gummer?
THE horse meat story has resulted in arrests. Peter Boddy, 63, of Peter Boddy Slaughterhouse in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, has been arrested on suspicion of fraud. The man whose factory takes in horses fatally injured at Aintree racecourse – venue of the Grand National – is accused by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) of providing horse meat for British kebabs and burgers.
A racecourse spokesman has gone on the record:
“We are as confident as we possibly can be that no unfit meat ever reaches human food.”
So. Not confident at all, then.
We await that magic moment when a racecourse owner dandles a jockey on his knee and encourages him to eat a burger. If John Gummer’s not too busy, perhaps he could reprise the role that made he and his then four-year-old daughter Cordelia famous. At the height of the BSE “mad cow” scandal in May 6 1990, Gummer, the Agriculture Minister, took Cordelia to a boat show in Suffolk Cordelia and encouraged her to eat a burger.
In all 32 people had died of CJD, the human from of BSE. Cordelia lived.
In other developments, Dafydd Raw-Rees, 64, owner of the Farmbox Meats processing plant in Aberystwyth, and another man aged 42 have also been arrested on suspicion of fraud.
Andrew Rhodes, the FSA’s director of operations, suspended work at both plants, saying: “I was shocked to uncover what appears to be a blatant misleading of consumers.”
Fears are that veterinary drug phenylbutazone, also known as bute, has entered the food chain.
Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer assures us:
“If you ate 100 per cent horse burgers of 250g, you would have to eat, in one day, more than 500 or 600 to get to a human dose.”
Which, of course, is why the stuff is banned…
Posted: 15th, February 2013 | In: News, The Consumer Comments (4) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
February 16th, 2013 at 8:40 pm
If they can con us by using horsemeat instead of beef ‘, what else are they doing with food we buy?
February 15th, 2013 at 4:26 pm
Parents pay enough for school lunches so obviously expect decent quality and at least to know what their kids are eating. It’s not the fact that it’s horsemeat – it’s 1. the meat has been described as beef and 2. there may be a problem with drug residue.
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You may think it trivial but I’m sure plenty of parents out there will be annoyed. It would also be interesting to see if any of this meat is in in products described as Halal. There’s already a dispute between The Lancashire Council of Mosques and the council because they’ve recently changed their school meal meat providers.
February 15th, 2013 at 3:57 pm
What is the fuss about schools. Horsemeat is as wholesome and healthy as any other meat. There are far more important issues about childrens food. The price schools pay for the food is minimal and therefore probably contains a whole load of other fillers, scraps and gathered sweepings. Still probably healthier than the average packed lunch of the great unwashed. Why is this happening? Easy, food is too cheap. I noticed a ‘beef’ based ready meal in our local German chain supermarket for 89p – the contents, I doubt, has ever been close to a Moo.
Can’t decide if the supermarkets are giving us what we want or we are accepting what they sell. My old Mum would have liked all this horsing around. I can hear her now, “You get what you pay for, Son.”
February 15th, 2013 at 1:22 pm
“HORSEMEAT has been discovered in school meals in Lancashire, officials have confirmed.
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Lancashire County Council says horse DNA has been found in cottage pies delivered to 47 schools across the county.
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Council chiefs are set to release a statement on the matter later today.”
http://www.clitheroeadvertiser.co.uk/news/local-news/horsemeat-discovered-in-lancashire-school-meals-1-5416582