Once again the big meat producers have been found selling horse meat as beef in Findus Lasagne; not 10% or 20% but a 100% horse meat! Findus claim ‘it’s not our fault it’s our supplier’. Sound familiar? Isn’t that what the supermarkets claimed?
We as retailers and producers of quality foods have a duty to our customers to ensure that our products we retail are what they say they are. At Chadwick’s we rely on no one else to safeguard our reputation or our products. If the FSA (Food Standards Agency) inspected our store and found horse meat in our products you can be assured that they would not hesitate to prosecute us. I have yet to see any action against the retailers or the big producers being promised by the FSA. Why? Probably because they are scared of them and the leagues of lawyers they will produce once prodded. Chadwick’s on the other hand cannot secure such legal prowess as we could not afford it.
Horse meat for Chadwick’s is not an issue as we only buy British Beef and we buy it in carcase form directly from the farm. If you wish to write to me and let me know your thoughts I would be glad to here them. I am angry about this as a trade i love is being brought into disrepute in the pursuit of profit. Unfortunately I doubt if it will be the end of the problem.
I would like to see a change in the law to packaging and the way brands are allowed to be used to fool the public. Any food product that claims to be made in the UK, should be grown in the UK. This would make traceability very simple for the FSA and easy for the public to understand. They should introduce a ‘Farm to Fork’ special status that would be given to small independant businesses such as Chadwick’s that CAN GUARANTEE the food from the fork to the farm. I say this because it is impossible for a large organistation to claim this unless they are vertically integrated and own the farms. Even then a rogue manager may introduce something he shouldn’t into the process.
Finally, The FSA are claiming there is no risk to human health but how could they possibly know? They have no idea whether any of the meat was condemed or not they could not possibly know that or they would have traced the source to the passport of the animal. Have they done this? I think not!
