Horse meat in a "100% beef burger"? It sounds absurd, but DNA tests have sounded yet another alarm that the meat industry hides difficult truths in its shadows. What should be an atrocious abnormality has become a sickening commonality in recent news. Horse has been discovered not in just one dish prepared by an obsolete chef but in beefburgers sold by a number of big brands in the United Kingdom such as Tesco, Findus, Aldi, and Burger King...and these companies can no longer deny it. While Burger King initially attempted to cling to its claim that its burgers contained beef and nothing but beef, even the fast food giant itself admitted to the public that customers could very well bite into the equines they might prefer to mount than eat, and the story doesn't end there. The unnerving confessions of the four UK companies aforementioned are only a small sliver of a story I still find almost indigestible.
It all began behind the scenes last November when, for the first time, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) conducted tests for the presence of the DNA of different species (including horse) on a varied selection of beefburgers. These tests were certainly abnormal, but they were far from pointless as proven when the results came back, revealing that more than one-third of the products tested contained horse DNA. After arriving at such alarming results, the FSAI repeated the testing procedure to verify that the truth was as bad as it seemed... and found that it was. The release of the FSAI's findings on January 15 launched a chain of accusations and denials as meat companies in the United Kingdom attempted to evade responsibility for feeding horse to unwary consumers. In the cloud of chaotic investigations and disputed leads, one thing became more and more certain: the horse meat scandal involved much more than just one company or even one nation.
And as each day unfolds, the scandal explodes into even larger proportions. As UK companies began to recall beefburgers, other countries such as Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany quickly fell into the horse meat scandal. Back in Britain, horse meat turned up even outside supermarkets and fast food restaurants; meals served to children at schools and the sick at hospitals tested positive for horse. The story has yet to end, and new, ever-sickening developments continue to emerge at an overwhelming pace. Just yesterday, Nestlé discovered levels of horse DNA in its own dishes, and the well-known company's Beef Tortellini and Buitoni Beef Ravioli sold in Spain and Italy joined the expanding list of recalled foods.
Why does the scandal seem to have no bounds? The simplest answer is this - it is the result of an industry that is itself unbounded by humane standards and in many areas untouched by basic ethics. The meat industry asserts that it has complete record of its supply chains, but the large-scale fraud consuming the industry prevents that assertion from being even close to true. Horse meat ends up in beefburgers because a fraudulent trade of horses for slaughter is sadly interwoven into the meat market, and the FSAI's reports have opened a door to a disturbing world beneath the public eye. Records suggest that thousands of horses destined for slaughter illegally move between at least thirteen nations, and criminal organizations have used the horse trade as a cover for the transport of cannabis. In an industry that operates outside the limits of law, no standards can prevent the worst from happening, adding an additional element of danger to the troubling presence of horse in so-called beef products. While slaughtering horses given the painkiller "bute" for human consumption explicitly violates the law because of the potentially deadly effects of the drug, officials know of at least six horses sent from Britain to France for use in human meals despite testing positive for bute. In the shadowy world of the underground horse trade, bute could have slipped into meat many other times unknown to authorities, and if horse meat contaminated with bute can adulterate beef products, what else goes on unstopped by regulations before meat reach our plates?
The answer is harsh but unavoidable. The meat industry is full of truths akin to horror stories. The horse meat scandal sends some grave reminders about the facts of an industry marked with suffering: the "guarantees" of the meat vendors melt in the face of truth, and behind the cheerful facades constructed by companies such as Burger King and Nestlé, meat is the product of realities that fail our every expectation.
For more facts on the unthinkable events of the horse meat scandal please visit:
New York Times - Nestlé
Guardian - The Essential Guide to the Scandal
Guardian - Timeline of the Scandal
Guardian - Horse Meat Schools and Hospitals
Guardian - No more excuses. The only defensible option is to go vegetarian
The answer is harsh but unavoidable. The meat industry is full of truths akin to horror stories. The horse meat scandal sends some grave reminders about the facts of an industry marked with suffering: the "guarantees" of the meat vendors melt in the face of truth, and behind the cheerful facades constructed by companies such as Burger King and Nestlé, meat is the product of realities that fail our every expectation.
For more facts on the unthinkable events of the horse meat scandal please visit:
New York Times - Nestlé
Guardian - The Essential Guide to the Scandal
Guardian - Timeline of the Scandal
Guardian - Horse Meat Schools and Hospitals
Guardian - No more excuses. The only defensible option is to go vegetarian
