Brits still find horsemeat too tough to swallow
THE NEWS that traces of horse DNA have been found in burgers in United Kingdom supermarkets has predictably resulted in a minor storm – and a groan- worthy selection of jokes on social media. While it’s not illegal to sell horsemeat in the UK, it is illegal to sell food containing ingredients that aren’t listed on the label. But how rational is the British horror of eating horse?
After all, horsemeat is widely enjoyed around the world: across Europe, in South America and in east Asia – it’s even been used by sushi chefs in Japan as a substitute for otoro bluefin tuna. In 2007, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay devoted an episode of The F Word to horse, trying without much success to persuade British consumers of its benefits. Horsemeat is healthy, being lower in fat than beef. It’s lower in cost and has a gamey flavour akin to venison.
For most people in the UK, horses are seen as sporting and companion animals in the same class as cats and dogs, rather than lumped in with pigs and cattle.
But this
national devotion
to horses has led to overbreeding on a massive scale, and large numbers of animals that are too slow to race, or whose owners can no longer afford to keep them as pets, are destroyed each year. Some are cremated, some sent to hunt kennels to feed hounds, some processed into pet food.
It’s estimated that thousands of horses are slaughtered in the UK each year for consumption abroad, and it is alleged that despite the ban on the export of live horses for slaughter, the trade still takes place. Surely it makes sense, instead, for the meat to be consumed locally.
It’s not as difficult to get hold of: horsemeat may not be commonly sold in the UK, but it’s by no means unheard of.
During rationing in the 1940s, it was eaten as an alternative to the unpopular whale meat, and today it’s available from some butchers, who sell it alongside edible insects, camel and zebra.
One restaurateur happy to include horse on his menu – as a tartare, prepared tableside – is Fred Berkmiller of L’Escargot Bleu in Edinburgh.
‘‘I’ve been serving horse for about two-and-a-half years,’’ he says, ‘‘and demand for it is high.
‘‘ The supply is limited, because I like to be able to guarantee the provenance of the meat. I source it from a farmer in the south of France, who breeds the animals specifically for meat. He only slaughters three animals a month, I buy 10kg of rump, and it goes on the board until it is sold.’’
Meanwhile, the Irish Government yesterday revealed more traces of horse DNA was were discovered in burgers from one of the plants at the centre of the adulterated food scandal.