Horsemeat scandal should make us rethink how we eat

HOW would you feel if the food on your plate had been adulterated with a cheap ingredient and passed off as something it was not? Probably quite angry, and perhaps a little queasy.

That might sound like an obvious reference to the horsemeat scandal that has engulfed Europe over the past few weeks, but it need not be. We could just as easily be talking about basmati rice, which is routinely bulked out with inferior varieties.

The problem of food fraud has not just galloped out of nowhere. Past cases have generally been associated with high-end products – honey, olive oil, cheese, fish, coffee, even posh potatoes. But the fact that the lucrative trade in adulteration also infests the bottom end of the market should come as no surprise. It has probably been going on for years.

“The fact that food fraud infests the bottom end of the market should come as no surprise”

So why the scandal over this case? There was no such outcry over basmati rice, even though the crime would appear to be roughly equivalent.

One factor is clearly cultural taboos over horsemeat. A more important one, though, is surely disgust and guilt at how the human food chain operates to satisfy our collective appetite for cheap meat. Why else would flesh from a Romanian abattoir find its way – via Cyprus, the Netherlands, France and Luxembourg – into cheap processed dinners in the UK? That is the real scandal here.

Meat is already a guilty pleasure for many, not just because of animal rights issues but also its environmental impact. That is not an argument for universal vegetarianism, which is no panacea (New Scientist, 17 July 2010, p 28). But the scandal is an opportunity to recalibrate our relationship with meat, starting with stricter regulation and monitoring and ending with better consumer choices. Eating less, eating ethically and eating locally would all benefit personal heath, the environment, animal welfare and the economy.

And while we’re at it, why not rethink those taboos? Horsemeat is perfectly edible, so why let it go to waste? And what about algae, jellyfish, invasive species or insects? All are surely more palatable than a factory-produced meal of any description – let alone one that is a step away from the knacker’s yard.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Who ordered that?”