fred wrote
Dave Liquorice wrote
Lobster wrote

So whereas I expect Findus Horse Lasagane is perfectly normal safe and
OK in some places within the EU (ie, prepared to the same rules and
regs as any food shipped to the UK), it obviously ain't in Blighty; and
imagine it's a case of the wrong sort of meat going down the wrong
assemble line somewhere.

And have the wrong label applied? Beef Lasagne should be made from beef
not horse. If horse is a more expensive meat than beef it ain't going to
be your "prime cuts fit for human consumption" that has been used and
mislabeled either.

What I find rather disturbing is that no one in the whole long supply
chain, from abattoir to retail outlet, appears to have been routinely
testing that a batch of meat or product called "beef" really is 100%
beef.

Why was this only really picked up by random food testing by a small
countries government FSA?

I'm glad I stopped eating meat 20+ years ago...

But how would they differentiate between beef and horse meat
once it had been butchered ? DNA testing would hardly be feasible

It is in fact done routinely in that situation now.

Much more common with seafood because there
are a lot more alternatives with seafood and many
more opportunitys to flog the cheap stuff as the
more expensive fish once its been filleted and
quite hard to work out which is which.