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Horse meat found in Ikea Swedish Meatballs!


Blueridge
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Horse meat has been eaten around the world for centuries. Although maybe not typical in American diets, I'm not quite sure what the big deal is?

That it is not labeled as such.

 

Water is perfectly safe, but I'd rather not buy milk that has been diluted by half with water.

 

How about if you buy chocolate and it's really carob? Or you buy lamb and it's really salmon? Or you shell out for an expensive cut of beef and it's really tofurkey?

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This whole horse meat thing... I have to wonder if it's a safety/health issue or a taste preference issue. For example, when I was a teenager, I ate the best burger ever at my cousin's house. Two bites left she told me it was an elk burger. I couldn't eat any more. And it had been SO good before. It was just that I am used to cow, not elk. It didn't make it bad or a problem to eat. It was just my personal preference. If that's all the horse meat thing is... I don't see what the huge deal really is (other than not labeling it what it is).

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Horse meat has been eaten around the world for centuries. Although maybe not typical in American diets, I'm not quite sure what the big deal is?

 

This. I mean, if something contains ingredients other than those listed, that's a problem, regardless of what that ingredient(s) is. But personally, I think beef is just as gross (and I've been a horse person my entire life; I'm pretty emotionally attached to them. I have three in my back pasture as we speak). My opinion may be colored by the fact that, in general, I think eating any type of flesh is disgusting. I don't see why the type of critter makes a difference. Yeah, I'm a vegetarian. Lol

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The labeling is the main thing. It's the integrity of the food. When we eat something we didn't prepare, we're trusting that it actually is what we're led to believe it is. Horse is not permitted for us to eat in Islam, so I would be doubly upset about it. However, I guess I wouldn't be eating it in the first place since it is not a Halal processed meatball in the first place!

 

ETA: I was mistaken. Horse meat is permissible, but the horse would still need to be slaughtered according to guidelines to make it halal.

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I read this earlier this morning:

How Britain Got A Taste for Horsemeat

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2013/feb/24/britain-got-a-taste-for-horsemeat

 

 

"You could have confused the horse with beef, but its steak – juicy, tender, just slightly gamey – won the fry-off by 12 votes to none. And we were all the better for it: horse has lots of iron, little fat and lots of omega-3. It is healthier than beef, so long as you're not eating an old steeplechaser laced with phenylbutazone. It is not true, by the way, that "bute" is one of those horse painkillers with recreational possibilities."

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So...does this horse meat come from animals euthanized and we get a dose of the kill shot with the serving of meatballs or are these "naturally deceased" animals which could mean some were rather old...

 

Just thinking out loud.

 

Slaughtered, often in facilities not designed for horses. :( One worry is what could be in their system if they're old racehorses.

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Do they taste good? That is the real question IMO. ;)

 

Read my link above. But that's meat labeled as horse, from reputable dealers, and under known conditions.

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Read my link above. But that's meat labeled as horse, from reputable dealers, and under known conditions.

 

That is all the difference. If someone wants to eat horse, that's her business. But to label something as being one thing, and it's really a cheap and unregulated substitute, ... I can't begin to fathom why that's fine with some people.

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That is all the difference. If someone wants to eat horse, that's her business. But to label something as being one thing, and it's really a cheap and unregulated substitute, ... I can't begin to fathom why that's fine with some people.

 

 

Exactly. The horse meat was not supposed to be in the meat used to make the meatballs. It's not like it's been IKEA's secret ingredient all along and the news was only just leaked.

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Ikea sells meatballs?

 

To me, this issue is less about horse than it is about where our food comes from. If you make meatballs yourself, you know the ingredients. If you buy ground beef, chicken, whatever (horse?) from your butcher whom you trust, you know what is in your meatballs.

 

Why do people buy groceries from a furniture store?

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Ikea sells meatballs?

 

To me, this issue is less about horse than it is about where our food comes from. If you make meatballs yourself, you know the ingredients. If you buy ground beef, chicken, whatever (horse?) from your butcher whom you trust, you know what is in your meatballs.

 

Why do people buy groceries from a furniture store?

 

 

Every IKEA has an in store restaurant and a small, almost novelty food section... lots of lingonberry. Their meatballs are very popular.

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Every IKEA has an in store restaurant and a small, almost novelty food section... lots of lingonberry. Their meatballs are very popular.

You can tell who is the non-shopper in the audience. Thanks for filling me in. (Although I will stick to my point about knowing your butcher, farmer, etc. to have faith in the food supply.)

 

Jane

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I know labeling mistakes are horrible- I have a highly allergenic kid. But horse meat is not like diseases meat. It just isn't a meat eaten in the US. But there isn't anything really wrong with eating it. I don't think I have but who knows?

 

Well, the problem is you don't know. Should we trust a facility that sneaks at least some horse meat into beef or pork mixtures to ensure all components are fit for human consumption?

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This has been going on in Europe for a few weeks. The last I heard they are still trying to figure out who purposely changed the labels from "horse" to "beef" and then ran off with the extra profit. It has eveyone upset, not because it's horse, but because if has undermined the confidence people had in the safety of their food.

 

I think that America hasn't been affected since our meat is not supplied from Europe. But I might be wrong.

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Has anyone pointed out that this has been going on in Europe for a few weeks? The last I heard they are still trying to figure out who purposely changed the labels from "horse" to "beef" and then ran off with the extra profit. It has eveyone upset, not because it's horse, but because if has undermined the confidence people had in the safety of their food.

 

"Tesco" isn't as attention grabbing as "IKEA" over here. :)

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This has been going on in Europe for a few weeks. The last I heard they are still trying to figure out who purposely changed the labels from "horse" to "beef" and then ran off with the extra profit. It has eveyone upset, not because it's horse, but because if has undermined the confidence people had in the safety of their food.

And the American IKEAs did not, as far as they currently know, ever sell the horseballs. I think people just got excited thinking they'd been a victim. I've known about the ongoing scandal too. And the other recent IKEA revelation that they kept their goods so cheap by using prison labor for a long period of time.

 

Why do people buy groceries from a furniture store?

So right. So, so, so right.

 

They have a cafe and sell a small amount of Swedish-themed food (cookies,candies, and some frozen goods, including meatballs and fish and some pastries, mostly I think). I bought the lingonberry jam a couple times (the only food) but then I realized, unlike every other jam I've ever bought, it has some weird preservative in it, and then it started to taste funny, so I never did again.

 

They also have a bouncy area for kids. It's to keep people in the giant, labyrinthine warehouse for days on end, I suspect.

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