Woolworths has announced it will conduct DNA tests on its home-brand meals in response to horse meat contamination in Europe. The uproar follows revelations by Irish food inspectors in mid-January that horse meat had been detected in burgers sold in UK supermarket chains.
The story intensified when some Findus and Aldi products labelled as beef were found to be 100% horse meat and may now involve as many as 16 European countries. In response to the growing evidence for widespread mislabelling, the EU Health Commissioner Tonio Borg has now urged all EU member states to implement random DNA testing of processed beef products, for a three-month period beginning March 1.
By saying it will test what it sells here, Woolworths is indicating to both the government and the public that it recognises the issue has become an identifiable risk. And it wants to assure customers that its products are legitimate.
Still, there’s no sign of a problem in Australia that’s similar to what’s happening in Europe, which seems to be in the grip of what is ostensibly economic fraud – the substitution of horse meat in products sold as beef. There don’t seem to be any specific food safety issues involved, although some commentators have raised the possibility of contamination with veterinary pharmaceuticals, which could have a negative impact on human health.
The issue is economic rather than nutritional. People eat meat because they enjoy it – they enjoy the texture and the flavour. Often people become accustomed to the flavour of the meat they eat, so horse meat may taste different, possibly “gamey”, but it’s easy to become accustomed to this.
Horse meat is generally very lean but otherwise nutritionally similar to beef or sheep. It’s a good source of protein, vitamins, minerals (especially iron) and healthy fatty acids (omega-3).
So, at the heart of the issue is a breach of trust for economic gain rather than being fed something unthinkable. Products have been labelled as containing beef, when they may in fact contain up to 100% horse meat. But let’s go back to the problem of veterinary pharmaceuticals. Some of these compounds are painkillers and since the human body responds differently to such drugs compared to horses, we get into dangerous territory for human health.
The substance causing the most concern is phenylbutazone, an anti-inflammatory drug given to horses for the treatment of lameness, pain and fever. It’s no longer used to treat humans and is not supposed to enter the food chain because it may cause a range of side effects. Some of these are quite serious, such as aplastic anaemia (bone marrow failure) in some people. But authorities in the United Kingdom have declared the illegal horse meat in the food safe to eat.
The difficulty for any regulator, such as the UK Food Standards Agency, is the same as the public faces. There has to be some degree of trust, let’s say, truth in labelling. If a supplier indicates that a food contains particular ingredients, then one can expect it will. Once again, what we’re talking about here is a breach of trust and that’s what’s unacceptable.
For food standards authorities around the world, the question is, does any agency have the ability to test everything? We think that’s what lies at the heart of the matter here. No agency has the resources to test everything and compliance with accepted food standard codes and labelling is vital.
But Europe will recover. Generally speaking, recovery from a scandal of this kind begins with a phase of greater accountability, and a requirement for food manufacturers to provide more independent evidence substantiating the authenticity of ingredients. Rogue operators shown to be breaching trust and behaving fraudulently are punished and banned. This is what we can expect to happen in the coming weeks. The EU Health Commissioner’s announcement suggests that the cleanout has begun.
Eric Anderson
Eternal Student
Rubbish. The lesson of this scandal is about the enormous complexity of the food system, the demonstrated fact that the inputs into the system were not controlled, and that these adulterated inputs spread unchecked throughout much of Europe.
Consider:
"Mr Hamon said that preliminary investigation by the French agency that combats consumer fraud had uncovered the Byzantine route taken by the “fake” beef. It came from abattoirs in Romania through a dealer in Cyprus working through another dealer in Holland to a meat plant in the south of France which sold it to a French-owned factory in Luxembourg which made it into frozen meals sold in supermarkets in 16 countries." (excerpted from The Independant, "Horsemeat found in British supermarkets 'may be donkey'." 10 Feb 2013)
This is a case of dodging a bullet from a systems failure. What if next time it is BSE (Mad Cow) instead of Bute?
Roger Crook
Retired agribusiness manager & farmer
Eric, I agree there is an element of academic rubbish is the article.
What you write about BSE is relevant, frighteningly so. Perhaps everyone before they give an opinion on the 'safety' of the food we import, we now import more processed food than we export, should listen to the following, which I found very disturbing but not surprising. I am not surprised because currently, China uses NZ to flood the Australian frozen veg markets with 'so called' cheap food, while our own food processing industry goes out the back door. Listen to this and be concerned:
http://www.fiveaa.com.au/audio_nick-xenophon-are-you-really-eating-local-produce_106284
Rod Govers
Retired IT administrator
I'm really disappointed that both the NZ and Australian governments haven't closed the loophole that allows China and other countries to funnel food through NZ and pass it off as NZ produce.
Rosie Hayes
Retired
This is one I didn't know about. Any examples please so that I may be alert?
Rod Govers
Retired IT administrator
I hate to use Today Tonight as a reference but this story explains some of it:
http://au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonight/consumer/article/-/10293370/toxic-food-imports--------------------------------------------------------------------------------I/
Roger Crook
Retired agribusiness manager & farmer
I phoned (on the 1800 line on the pack) a well known brand name, that have done it again!, and asked them about their pack of mixed veg marked 'Product of NZ from local and imported products' my question to them was, what was 'local' and what was imported? The reply was that the peas were produced in NZ the rest, beans, broccoli and I think carrot was imported from China.
For confirmation have a look at the NZ govt import stats and you will find that the amount of veg NZ imports is totally disproportionate to the population. That is unless they stopped growing their own and have all become vegans and eat for most of the day.
Rosie Hayes
Retired
Thank you for the prompt reply. I see the concern here is mostly from frozen vegetables - thankfully I don't eat them. But I hate that Australians are being misled. I will be more vigilant in future than I already am - many thanks.
Rosie Hayes
Retired
Have listened to this and am concerned. The obvious question springs to mind: why would we wish to import beef when we have such an abundance of our own? Even if overseas beef is cheaper surely the transport and handling negates the profit margin.
Roger Crook
Retired agribusiness manager & farmer
Good one Rod.
I have been fighting this battle for years, butmy words have all fallen on deaf ears.
There isn't a food producer in Australia who is showing a return on investment commensurate with that investment and the hours they work.
Average debt in WA of all farms $850,000 + ROI average negative and yet our supermarkets are stuffed full of the cheapest food available from any source in the world. No questions asked.
Off topic a bit but we are surrounded by oceans yet we import 70% of the fish we consume. Must be something wrong there surely?
Much of the fish we import is from fish farms in Thailand and Vietnam. Go look at the Mekong sometime! It's pristine! It's a second Tasmania!!
We also import fish from NZ, wonder where that comes from!
Roger Crook
Retired agribusiness manager & farmer
It may come as some surprise to you that Australia imports over 70% of the pig meat consumed in this country, it is almost certain that the bacon and ham you buy is made from imported produce. We import (in the main) from the USA, Canada and Holland.
I haven't yet verified the figures below, which I found on a reputable site, they seem to agree with Aust Pork Council figures, make interesting reading just the same:
‘Every week, around 2.6 million tonnes of cheap, imported pork is shipped in to…
Read moreRosie Hayes
Retired
Actually, the pork I did know about. I rang Woolies a couple of years ago asking which bacon was Australian. They were surprisingly honest and told me the one brand which was guaranteed Australian, Aussie Farmers, or something like that. Of course, this is the store which proclaims to do so much for Australian farmers! You mentioned fish in one of your comments - this has shocked me for years. I refuse to buy any fish from overseas at all.
Roger Crook
Retired agribusiness manager & farmer
It's a strange world we live in, Rosie.
I got fairly close to it but never actually nailed it, last year I became almost certain that beef we had exported to the USA (our biggest market) , that some of it was coming back to us as canned stew as produce of the 'little old USA'.
Now you tell me how that works? Either we are selling it, beef, too cheaply or their costs to produce canned goods are so much less than our that it makes it profitable for the USA cannery to re export our beef!!
Rosie Hayes
Retired
It IS a strange world. I live in hope that one day the majority of Australians will actually read the side of a packet. I also live in hope that Australians will want to support Aussie farmers above any others. About the American stew? I know American workers' wages are much lower than ours - at least for production line work etc. But, again, I would have thought that the cost of importing our beef, canning it then exporting it would have been prohibitive. And there is the fact that they produce so much of their own beef. Personally, I will not even buy fresh supermarket produce (fruit and veg.) from overseas. I know the article was about 'horse-meat' but our comments are all related to overseas food presented to Australians.
Peter Ormonde
Peter Ormonde is a Friend of The Conversation.
Farmer
Eric...
Too true.
If you'd like to see the complexity at work have a look at this wonderful bit of illustrated wizardry from the UK Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/datablog/interactive/2013/feb/15/europe-trade-horsemeat-map-interactive
Makes Fine Cotton look like a very feeble effort.
Roger Crook
Retired agribusiness manager & farmer
Peter, what a great piece of technology.
Talking of painted horses, there is a bit in the Weekend Australian, telling the tale that a man called Boddy (honest) who has the contract to remove dead horses from racetracks like Aintree, where they run the Grand National, has been arrested as part of the horse meat,so called, scandle.
I think I am right, there are more horses in the world now than there were before the modern age, I certainly know that is true of Australia and America.
James Jenkin
EFL Teacher Trainer
'Frightening'? Surely, Roger, what is striking about this case is it's so unusual.
Do you have any evidence that a local small business is more transparent and law-abiding than a multinational corporation?
Roger Crook
Retired agribusiness manager & farmer
No. I suppose it depends on the definition of small local business. If it's, do I think the local butcher in the UK would put horse meat in his shop and call it beef? The answer is no.
If a local knackery in the UK had an avenue for exporting horse meat to say, Belgium, where horse meat is common, and then it, the horse meat, gets into a system where it can be reboxed, minced, whatever and change from horse to beef, then they may well be complicit, know about the deal.
Who knows. The EU is a trading bloc of some 400 m.
The last time there was an F&M outbreak in the UK, they found lambs had crossed the EU for slaughter, from the UK, in less than 24 hours.
Big corporations? As I have already written their business is all about market share, which means price, or as Coles say Down, Down, Down. European traders (obviously) found some 'cheap' beef.
The supply of cheap food can only mean that the margins of the producer are reduced.
Kelly Schofield
Intern
I'm happy to eat Black Beauty - lean, tasty, cheap meat.
I want more horse meat in the supermarkets, not less!
Rod Govers
Retired IT administrator
Why not get a job in an abattoir? I get the impression you'd really be happy working in one.
Then again you might think meat magically appears in plastic wrapped trays in your supermarket.
Kelly Schofield
Intern
My point is that I don't understand why people have a problem with lean tasty meats like kangaroo, horse, etc
As sources of protein they are truly excellent.
No Rod, I grew up in the country. I have slaughtered my own rabbits, chickens, ducks, sheep. I have taken cows to the abbatoir. What's your point?
Pat Moore
gardener
In a market based economy where profit is the major motive leading to "inhuman" animal factory farming on a mega scale & millions of humans are a dormed dependent market in massive cities this is a 'recipe for disaster waiting to happen'. It is morally wrong to do this to animals. Therefore it is now morally wrong to eat meat. Spend some time with a cow & calf then attack them with an axe & butcher & eat them or a lamb or a chook. Visit an imprisoned sow. Supermarket plastic gives consumers the luxury of insulating/removing them from the consequences of their brutalising choice to eat meat. Health effects to humans are the least of the problem.
It is the sheer number of humans that now makes eating meat immoral because it necessarily leads to immoral treatment of animals.
Marie Bosworth
Administration
"Spend some time with a cow & calf then attack them with an axe & butcher & eat them or a lamb or a chook. "
As long as the animal is killed humanely, I am happy to do this, and have done so with sheep and chickens. (I avoid lamb - I don't eat babies as a rule). I know that my meat is sourced humanely because it come from my parents' farm (mutton) and a local free range breeder (chicken). Obviously not everyone has this option.
You seem to be stating that the real issue is overpopulation…
Read morejamie jardine
student
"In a market based economy where profit is the major motive leading to "inhuman" animal factory farming on a mega scale & millions of humans are a dormed dependent market in massive cities this is a 'recipe for disaster waiting to happen'."
- Soylent Green anyone?
Roger Crook
Retired agribusiness manager & farmer
You must be a history student, Jamie. Soylent Green - goodness me!
Most people forget that the population of the world has more than doubled since the end of WWII.
The majority of the people have been fed, those who haven't, it hasn't been for the lack of food. It's easier to fight wars. Farmers have done and will feed the world in the future, providing they can stay in business.
The rest of the world pays $1b a day in agric subsidies. Aust farmers get virtually nothing and are going deeper into debt or out of business in the face of subsidised 'cheap food' imports.
Wonder how many cashed in on that horse or donkey or whatever it was wandering round the northern hemisphere in boxes? I'll bet there is an export incentive in there somewhere in the EU policy, so it just kept on moving from seller to buyer and across borders.
Luke Weston
Physicist / electronic engineer
Of course they could have just labelled the products as containing horse meat instead of beef, assuming that the horse meat is processed and handled according to the same usual required standards of safe, hygenic meat processing, and passed some of the discount of the lower-priced horse meat onto consumers in the end product cost, and most customers would be completely happy to buy the lower priced product!
Pera Lozac
Heat management assistant
Labelling aside - this article sounds like the supermarket beef is the cleanest meat around and some unfit horse meat addition was ruining it. Maybe we should look what is inside the beef that we buy in the shops:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_slime
on top of that a load of hormones and antibiotics. Any addition to that can be only a benefit if you ask me. Or....why eating it at all?
Kevin Bain
Teacher
The writers are sending a few mixed messages here. Firstly, "there don’t seem (sic) to be any specific food safety issues involved..." yet later, the possible contamination by vet pharmaceuticals means "...we get into dangerous territory for human health." Some useful info would be whether horse meat is "grown" in the EU for human consumption, and therefore regulated as such.
Why do you feel the need to "second guess" the investigation? You can leave that to the media who are more about talking…
Read moreTony Xiao
retired teacher
RE: China 'uses' NZ to 'funnel' food to Oz.
I would think that it is mainly due to the FTA between NZ and China.
Roger Crook
Retired agribusiness manager & farmer
You are right, Tony. There is then the free trade agreement across the ditch which has been there forever.
Australia seems keen at present to have it's own FTA with China.
Suzy Gneist
logged in via Facebook
To me this issue raises the question of how far we are away from the Soylent Green scenario. It shows a complete lack of connection between suppliers within food chains, trust may be a large part of this lack, but by spreading supply chains across larger and larger networks and cultures also introduces those cultural differences - one man's horse is another man's cow, sensibilities vary enormously.
Roger Crook
Retired agribusiness manager & farmer
We are a long way from Soylent Green, Suzy, nonetheless we are a difficult species to understand. The paradox that always gets me is the movement of 'organic food' by air freight. No chemicals (or so they say) in the food but just look at the vapour trail in the evening sky!
Read moreThere is an abattoir in WA owned by a Jordanian company who air-freight chilled lamb from WA to Jordan. If I could afford it, it would cost me about $480 return, to fly from Albany to Perth, 1 hour or thereabout. I weigh the…
Suzy Gneist
logged in via Facebook
Well, we've got an abundant supply of venison, camel and kangaroo we can add to our local homebrand lasagne then ;)
What I meant with the soylent green reference was also the ignorance of the consumer and lack of interest in enquiry of where their food comes from - which you refer to.
Myself, I prefer local produce and I also prefer to pick my own ingredients rather than eat the fillers in prepared meals... I find them more objectionable than eating horse meat, or venison, hare, rabbit....
Ewen Peel
Farmer
This whole issue just highlights how inadequate our food labeling laws are and the loopholes in the system with imported food from places with little in the way of labeling or processing standards.
As Australian farmers we produce some of the best quality food in the world and this largely done in a sustainable and responsible way to some of the highest standards in the world.
Imported food is not subject to a lot of these conditions and therefore is usually cheaper and a poorer quality. Not in all cases but there seems to be a growing issue of sneaky imports such as the Chinese veg's via NZ and then being all NZ produce. Just appalling...
Two things to come out of all this.. You only get what you pay for.
And the sooner we get some decent food labeling laws that actually mean something the better. It should be an election issue because there is a lot of concern out there.
Roger Crook
Retired agribusiness manager & farmer
The answer not only lies in the shortcomings of the labeling laws, but whether the average frantic, stressed out, seemingly short of time usually female buyer, all personal observations by the way, even bothers to read the label.
One can raise attention to oneself when hanging around 'doing nothing' in a supermarket, but it's worth the risk just to watch people. It's mostly 'smash and grab'.
The other problem we have, as highlighted in The Age last year, is that in 2010 -2011 we exported $572 m of processed fruit and veg and we imported $1486 m so we imported $914 m more than we exported.
Why are we now a net importer of processed fruit and veg? Because the major supermarkets scour the world for the cheapest produce they can find. Down. Down. Down says it all. It's about market share.
Revert this story to the topic, horse meat is, obviously, cheaper than beef, so move it around and if you do it often enough it changes.
Suzy Gneist
logged in via Facebook
I don't think you can reasonably limit your observations to female buyers - even if they are in the majority. I would consider them on average more likely to read a label (speaking from personal experience) than a male shopper who may want to spend as little time as possible in store and selects by price, brand or convenience... whatever the ingredients. It could be interesting to survey these personal observations though, I think there will be a divide too between those who do their shopping in the chain supermarket (care less abt source) and those who spend saturday mornings at the local produce market (care abt source). Looking only at one group (female supermarket shoppers) may lead to false generalisations :)
Real Italian salami was traditionally made with donkey meat if I remember right - that it is now commercially made from beef might have more to do with cultural preferences and economic decisions than tradition and flavour.
Peter Redshaw
Retired
I am not sure what the author was attempting to argue, because the whole argument was contradictory in nature. You can not say "so, at the heart of the issue is a breach of trust for economic gain rather than being fed something unthinkable", than say it is much more than that. I would suggest the breach of trust is very much about a system that allows you to be fed something you do not know and therefore something with unknown health consequences.
The problem with so much of the imported…
Read moreKevin Bain
Teacher
It's well known that more people are curious about what they are eating, and fears and lack of knowledge about various aspects of food are a recurring theme of this conversation (remember that word editors?).
Read moreAn Explainer which included expert contributions from these authors or others, and perhaps the ANZFA, on the issue of food regulation would be a very useful discussion. It should cover the imported food testing regime, remedies enacted following previous problems, tracing the food chain, what…
Roger Crook
Retired agribusiness manager & farmer
You could start with :http://www.daff.gov.au/
Then ponder that the current government have reduced expenditure on quarantine and changed the system. I don't think anyone knows the percentage of incoming food that gets tested. My understanding is they sample and extrapolate from those results.
Roger Crook
Retired agribusiness manager & farmer
Just looked it up. These are the numbers from2003-4 to 2010-11 for imports into Australia of:
Substantially and elaborately transformed meat from the EU.
Meat
Meat processing 115 121 101 173 142 217 215 157
It's in $m
Source: Aust Food Stats. Aust Fed Govt.