In message , Rod Speed
writes
wrote
Dave Liquorice wrote

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.

PCR assays for horse could be made cheap enough for
widespread surveillance, but it's not really the right approach.

It is when you want to rub the supplier's noses in the fact that
whatever they try fraud wise will get caught very quickly.

If you have to figure out after the fact what animal it came
from, you really don't know enough about the suppliers.

That last just isnt feasible with an EU wide system.

Its never going to be feasible to have your own staff
permanently inside all your suppliers EU wide and
even that wont work because they can be bribed etc.

What's the next yucky thing going to be
that we then have to check all meat for?

Animals getting killed outside inspected abattoirs etc.
You cannot inspect absolute quality into a system. That depends on the
integrity of everyone involved in the task. That is not going to happen
anywhere so when you do catch anyone out you have to come down on them
HARD - to deter les autres.
--
bert