Horse tastes like salty cow.
At least that’s what I remember from the horse sandwich I ate 22 years ago in Belgium.
At the time, I was studying abroad at the Catholic University of Leuven and had taken a class trip with a group of American, Belgian and English students to Flanders, which included a stop at a local school for a traditional rural Flemish luncheon. A tray of various cold cuts had been placed on our table, and I thought one of them was roast beef. Later that night, one of my American buddies gleefully made fun of me for eating horse.
Apparently, he had been tipped off by the Belgian students at his table. The Belgians also told him the Dutch word for horse was “paard” and to watch out for it.
Sure enough, I saw that word or variations of it in the grocery stores, cafeterias and restaurant menus throughout Leuven and never ate it again. I now regret that.
But at least I had a choice: Millions of Europeans have been eating horsemeat without their knowledge in a scandal that’s been galloping across Europe for the last month.
The European horsemeat scandal exemplifies the larger problem of consumers not knowing exactly what’s in their food or exactly where it comes from. And if you think foodie-haven Seattle is immune to this issue, I have some cheap ground meat to sell you.
Corporate horseplay
There’s nothing wrong with eating horse, of course, unless you think it’s culturally repugnant, like the English and Irish do. That’s where the horsemeat scandal began in early February, when millions of hamburgers labeled as beef were removed from grocery-store shelves because they contained horse DNA. Soon after, frozen beef-lasagna products were also removed because DNA tests revealed horsemeat content in the 60- to 100-percent range.
European authorities began pointing fingers at French, Polish and Romanian companies and stated that the entire scandal was a case of fraudulent labeling and did not pose a health risk. However, the British government soon discovered that horse carcasses that tested positive for the horse-drug phenylbutazone, or bute, may have entered the human food chain in France. Bute is a painkiller used in horses that is considered harmful if ingested by humans.
The scandal also exposed the complex international supply chain that provides Europeans and people all over the world with their meat. Swedish furniture giant Ikea was forced to withdraw its iconic Swedish meatballs from some of its stores because they tested positive for horsemeat. The meatballs all came from the same Swedish supplier and necessitated recalls in 21 European countries, as well as Hong Kong, Thailand and the Dominican Republic.
Ironically, while most people in England and Ireland are disgusted by the thought of eating horsemeat, both counties sell thousands of retired farm and racehorses across the Channel to France and Belgium every year to be processed for human consumption in those and other European countries.
Why did horsemeat end up in so many products labeled beef? Most likely, because companies needed to keep costs low and profits high. Horsemeat is cheaper, so companies used it as a filler to replace more expensive beef.
While the horsemeat scandal has not reached the United States, there are concerns that pending mandatory sequester cuts will affect meat inspections, and that could eventually lead to meat shortages and skyrocketing prices. And that could lead American meat companies to look for new ways to keep costs low and profits high….
Seahorse-meat scandal?
However,there is another food-labeling scandal swimming near our shores: the mislabeling of seafood. In February, Oceana, an ocean conservation group, released a report that showed one in three fish sold at restaurants and grocery stores in the United States is mislabeled.
Typically, cheaper fish species are labeled as more expensive ones. According to an article on NPR.com, fish sold as snapper was mislabeled 87 percent of the time, while fish sold as tuna was mislabeled 59 percent of the time.
This fraud can also lead to potentially serious health risks. For example, king mackerel, which is high in mercury, could be labeled as grouper; or escolar, which contains a natural toxin that can cause gastrointestinal problems, could be labeled as white tuna.
It’s extremely easy for mislabeled fish to dart past Food and Drug Administration inspectors: Currently, 90 percent America’s seafood is imported, and less than 2 percent is inspected. Compared to other American cities, fish-friendly Seattle tied with Boston as having the lowest deception rate: Only one in five of fish samples was mislabeled.
I feel pretty good about the safety of my food choices. I don’t eat fish unless it’s beer-battered and deep-fried or chowdered. And I don’t buy my meat at Ikea.
But just to be on the safe side, maybe I’ll start to eat more peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches. I’ll just ignore the fact that four former executives at Peanut Corp. of America were recently indicted for knowingly selling peanut butter contaminated with salmonella.
At least I’m sure the jelly will be just fine…right?
MATTHEW WILEMSKI is an award-winning columnist based in Seattle. To comment on this column, write to QAMagNews@nwlink.com.