Tesco caught with their snouts in the trough

[MrCloser]

Why does it take the Food Standards agency to pull 10 million burgers from Tesco shelves? how long has this really been going on for?

I worked in a warehouse as a student, everything going to tescos was checked by their in house lab.

With DNA testing cheaper and easier than before, and the meat trade knowing where a lot of these horse carcasses really ended up, it seems incredible to me that tescos really had no idea...or even worse, they were to niave/irresponsible to bother to check (unthinkable)

Anyone in the food or meat trade got the inside story here?

From 'accidentally' trousering £150 000 value of fuel over 18 months by selling short measures (impossible to have that much leakage from fuel tanks and to not notice it within weeks) to 'acidentally' building a store 20% over the planning permission, to 'accidentally' selling plonk mislabelled as fine wine, it seems that the issue now isn't so much about how tesco treat their suppliers, more about how they treat their customers.

Another example of big business laughing at trading standards and uk law.

 

[Talay]

The first question is just how does horse meat get into the food chain through their supply chain. Tesco don't sell horse meat to my knowledge. That it could reach 24% apparently just shows someone is on the fiddle and I truly don't understand how that could have passed any form of internal control.

Of course, Joe Public, with the brain capacity of a sea urchin, will carry on shopping at Tesco because they are blinded by the lure of vouchers and their belief that Tesco are cheaper than the others, or indeed cheaper than anyone. If they could count, they would know that is not true.

 

[Matt1959]

Of course, Joe Public, with the brain capacity of a sea urchin, will carry on shopping at Tesco because they are blinded by the lure of vouchers and their belief that Tesco are cheaper than the others, or indeed cheaper than anyone. If they could count, they would know that is not true.

or my missus who when I told her about the horseburgers she replied "oh its ok, the Tesco burgers we have in the freezer have been there for ages"

 

[MrCloser]

Nothing wrong with eating horsemeat, I have in before in France, and hundreds of time in England.. Personally i'd rather eat a horse bought for £10 from the knackers yard than eat battery farmed food, but ethics are personal choice.



Of course, Joe Public, with the brain capacity of a sea urchin, will carry on shopping at Tesco because they are blinded by the lure of vouchers and their belief that Tesco are cheaper than the others, or indeed cheaper than anyone. If they could count, they would know that is not true.

Very true, and as our High Streets empty by the day, Tesco and One Stop Shop will have even more market dominance and pay evenless uk corporation tax.

I trust tesco will be going through their reward card database and refunding 29% of the cost to every value burger buyer sold...

 

[herewegoagain.]

I hope I live long enough to see the day that Tesco goes bust..... they are nothing but small businesses killers, devaluing everything they come into contact with.... and creating ghost towns of empty shops....

 

[MrCloser]

Their market share is declining, the writing is on the wall.

Just like the Roman Empire and the Third Reich, what goes up must come down sooner or later.

Just hope the Muslims are wise enought to avoid buying 'Halal meat' at Tescos, probably get a a roadkill Dog instead on a double clubcard points promotion.

 

[emmylou74]

Nothing wrong with eating horsemeat, I have in before in France, and hundreds of time in England...

There is something very wrong with selling a BEEF burger and it have 29% horsemeat in it without displaying that on the ingrediant list. Every consumer should have the right to choose what they eat. It may be fine for you it may not be fine for someone else - they should have the right to decide for themselves.

Then there is the question - they do not know where the horsemeat came from - so there could be human health at question if it came from a meat source not suitable for human consumption.

There was also pork found in it - what about those who for religious reasons do not eat that.

It is not Tescos job to decide what is alright for me to eat. That is my choice and I want to be allowed that freedom.

 

[mhall]

I hope I live long enough to see the day that Tesco goes bust..... ..

I wish ...

Sorry, but you have more chance of seeing the end of the DFS Sale - and that's not happening any time soon.

 

[silvermusic]

I wish ...

Sorry, but you have more chance of seeing the end of the DFS Sale - and that's not happening any time soon.

Given what's happened to a whole host of retailers and other businesses bigger and smaller in recent years, is it really that unthinkable that a large supermarket chain could go under at some point in the future? Time's and fortunes change and nothing lasts forever, especially in retail.

 

[roydmoorian]

Tesco's new delivery vans.....

 

[Tej]

Given what's happened to a whole host of retailers and other businesses bigger and smaller in recent years, is it really that unthinkable that a large supermarket chain could go under at some point in the future? Time's and fortunes change and nothing lasts forever, especially in retail.

Very true..

Those were the days when the sun did not set on the British Empire.... gone!!

Tesco ain't as big.. so yes anything can happen...

If a relatively small percentage of people stopped shopping at Tesco...would have a big impact,.... IMHO

 

[silvermusic]

Very true..

Those were the days when the sun did not set on the British Empire.... gone!!

Tesco ain't as big.. so yes anything can happen...

If a relatively small percentage of people stopped shopping at Tesco...would have a big impact,.... IMHO

I'm reminded of how quickly Ratners went to the wall after a silly of the cuff remark from it's boss. Then looking at recent days with the horse meat thing.

 

[british steve]

I’m sure it won’t be to long before the general public have forgotten all about this sorry little sage and Tesco sales start galloping ahead again!

 

[InternetMarketingPlatinum]

Hey you I don't know what your beef is but just let's stop horsing around now!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[TOKN]

The product was supplied by Irish firm silvercrest. The burgers met minimum requirements for meat levels for their name, given that they were value burgers, and as other users have stated there's nothing wrong with horse.


If I were the kind of person who bought value burgers (I only ever feed them to my dogs) then a little horse meat would be a welcome addition. It's all in all a healthier meat than intensively farmed beef.

 

[Simply Clicks]

I think the writing is on the wall for Tesco boss Phil Clarke. The previous boss, Terry Leahy, enjoyed a run of positive commercial success and positive sentiment in the financial press. The horse burger fiasco could be the final nail in the coffee for the current leader.

 

[roydmoorian]

The product was supplied by Irish firm silvercrest. The burgers met minimum requirements for meat levels for their name, given that they were value burgers, and as other users have stated there's nothing wrong with horse.
.

Agreed, there is nothing wrong with assured, inspected, human consumption grade horsemeat with quality traceability - but this obviously wasn't or it would have been declared on the ingredients.

It could well have been pet food or even condemned grade !!

It would have been included for cheapness and considering that horsemeat is considered a premium product within Europe and prices are generally higher than beef the conclusion is that the quality must be suspect.

The whole debacle makes a mockery of the sterling efforts pun into "Farm Assurance" with cattle passports and myriad hoop jumping imposed on UK Agriculture.

 

[anon154650]

It does not surprise me that the Food Standards Agency does so little for food safety in this country. As a Radio Amateur and Citizens' Band radio user, I am part of a group who have been fighting Ofcom since 2008 over their refusal to enforce the law and ensure electronic junk that fails to meet the 'essential requirements' of the EMC Directive is removed from the market place. (see http://www.ban-plt.co.uk/ for more info) "No barrier to free trade" is the mantra forced by the business departments, so the QUANGOs choose which laws they will enforce and which they will ignore.

Many of the QUANGOs are only interested in making money for the Treasury, so anything that costs, like DNA testing, enforcing the law, etc., is likely to be ignored in the hope that the public will not notice. If the Irish authorities had not picked this up, no-one would have been any the wiser.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

As all packaging has to have a list of contents on it and these did not include Horse meat then trading standards should take them to court like the banks and have a fine of multi million pounds for each product found to be faulty labeled

If ISO 9000 certified company this should be cancelled

If unable to prove where the horse came from then they should be fined additionally for selling unlicenced food

Me I would close them down untill a full check had been made on all their food products as for all we know there may me many hundreds of products using potentially dangerous meet products that nobody can certify as passed for human consumption

 

[Nuno]

Tesco, (and all the other supermarkets using the same food processor), were testing. They were however not using DNA testing, instead they were relying on the established and accepted method of testing for protein.

What the food processor was doing was adding a protein powder which contained the horse meat. I have no idea where the protein powder came from, but as it would be low in volume might not need to be separately listed on the ingredients, and could be included in 'other'.

(Ground up melamine also increases the measured protein content. Thousands of dogs in America have died from eating Chinese dog food laced with melamine. Yes, that's right, that stuff you have on shelves.)

On another point I'd imagine that most people who bought 7p budget frozen burgers wouldn't be overly worried by the purity of the ingredients. That's a bit further upscale, towards the organic/localvore end of the market. 7p burgers are survival.

 

[roydmoorian]

What the food processor was doing was adding a protein powder which contained the horse meat. I have no idea where the protein powder came from, but as it would be low in volume might not need to be separately listed on the ingredients, and could be included in 'other'.

29% is hardly protein powder which doesn't need declaring :|

 

[Nuno]

29% is hardly protein powder which doesn't need declaring :|

Why are you shouting?
And if you read what I wrote you will see I didn't say anything like what you have put.

So, your point is?

 

[roydmoorian]

Didn't mean to shout ( I thought that was what CAPITALS were for).

But horsemeat accounted for approximately 29% of the meat content in one sample from Tesco.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21034942

I wouldn't call 29% "low volume".

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

All this horse-meat scandal just reminds me of Hilary Briss from The League Of Gentlemen with his "special stuff"

Realistically though, what Tesco's has done is nothing but a con, whether they knew about it or not it doesn't really matter... Why people are kicking off over a bit of Mr Edd found in their food is beyond me... People are concerned because they've been lied to by Tesco's? - What about the Government and it's shoddy running of this country - If it's that big a deal for Tesco's then the Government should be closed down too for not providing what they say they do.

 

[Nuno]

Didn't mean to shout ( I thought that was what CAPITALS were for).

But horsemeat accounted for approximately 29% of the meat content in one sample from Tesco.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21034942

I wouldn't call 29% "low volume".

Yes it seems a lot. With the limited experience of the products I have put out 29% would be the major ingredient, but I have no idea about the mix that goes into burgers.

The point a lot of us are missing is that we want cheap food but when given it we want quality and availability too. Ever had one of those clients who you want to tell: "You can have it cheap, fast and good. Chose any two of the above"?

(It doesn't help. IMO. blaming only Tesco rather than including the Irish Food Processor, ABP. They went tits up after all the stuff they supplied to Saddam Hussein's army went unpaid for, were rescued by the Irish Banking Murphia, and are probably laughing their asses off for feeding 'tefeckinbrits' horse burgers, and being paid for it.)

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Where does Cheap food come into it, thats the only item that has been shown to be wrongly labled at present, Presumably far more items will come to the front over time

What people are upset about is that trading standards has failed in a massive way to protect us from contaminated food and has not really made any statement about it.

The labels are ment to show every item that went into the product and now it's a meaningless label

If massive companies do not have the facilities to check what they sell then what else goes on in the much smaller companies who want a fast buck

 

[Esk247]

Yes it seems a lot. With the limited experience of the products I have put out 29% would be the major ingredient, but I have no idea about the mix that goes into burgers.

Would that make it OK for Tesco to put skunk in a burger? or some badger meat? because that makes it cheap so therefore its OK?

It doesn't matter if horse meat is edible or not, the point of all this is what on earth is it doing in there, without being placed on the label (think thats a legal requirement) and how come Tesco and its suppliers don't seem to know where this horse meat came from? They say they don't have a clue, someone just chucked a couple of horses in and nobody thought to mention it.

Wheres the basic product testing? I don't care if the meat was 2p a box, that doesn't mean they can just shove iron filings in it or glass,

"doesn't matter folks, its cheap, that means we can fill our food products with anything, bin liners, horse meat, goat hooves, you all wanted cheap didn't you?"

 

[Nuno]

Where does cheap food come into it?

Hmmm, Tricky one.

Ingredients in cheapest burgers available in supermarket have dodgy ingredients.
Ingredients in burgers in cheapest supermarket have dodgy ingredients.

Spot the theme yet?

Are you saying that the burgers were contaminated food which we needed protection from? What was going to happen when these contaminated burgers were eaten?
Remind me: how many have died, being taken to hospital or even had a stomach ache?

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

Would that make it OK for Tesco to put skunk in a burger? or some badger meat? because that makes it cheap so therefore its OK?

Hmm... I'll try anything once...

 

[Esk247]

Where does cheap food come into it?

Hmmm, Tricky one.

Ingredients in cheapest burgers available in supermarket have dodgy ingredients.
Ingredients in burgers in cheapest supermarket have dodgy ingredients.

Spot the theme yet?

Are you saying that the burgers were contaminated food which we needed protection from? What was going to happen when these contaminated burgers were eaten?
Remind me: how many have died, being taken to hospital or even had a stomach ache?

Burgers 'may' have been contaminated or the produce was just not labelled correctly. The latter being the best outcome.

You seem to be suggesting that Tesco are perfectly allowed to put anything in their burgers, they don't even need to say what's in them any more, i mean..they're only cheap right? and the people buying them are cheap too so it doesn't matter if they become ill?

I'd argue that the law states otherwise. Tesco (and others) must display what makes up their food products on the packaging. They cannot just shove iron filings in or bits of horse.

Do you know where the horses came from? Neither do Tesco..neither do their suppliers..does that not worry you just a tad?

p.s. i don't eat tesco burgers.

 

[ScottishInvestments]

I wish ...

Sorry, but you have more chance of seeing the end of the DFS Sale - and that's not happening any time soon.

They said the RBS could never fail. Look at them now!

ScotInvest

 

[simon field]

Once again, Tesco are "big and bad".

People are "outraged".

Really? Be honest, we all love Tesco. I say this because we all do - and will continue to - shop there, you know, like we don't have a choice.

They're brilliant, but people always want to home in on one or two mistakes, what about the millions and billions of things they do which are good?

 

[roydmoorian]

Where does cheap food come into it?

Hmmm, Tricky one.

Ingredients in cheapest burgers available in supermarket have dodgy ingredients.
Ingredients in burgers in cheapest supermarket have dodgy ingredients.

Spot the theme yet?

Are you saying that the burgers were contaminated food which we needed protection from? What was going to happen when these contaminated burgers were eaten?
Remind me: how many have died, being taken to hospital or even had a stomach ache?

Much food which is deemed unfit for human consumption is actually unlikely to have adverse effects on 95% of the population. Humanity tends to err on the side if safety when feeding itself unless the alternative is starvation.

It is highly unlikely that the unidentifiable horse meat was included to make the burger more expensive - ergo it was included to cheapen the end product.

 

[MrCloser]

Once again, Tesco are "big and bad".

People are "outraged".

Really? Be honest, we all love Tesco. I say this because we all do - and will continue to - shop there, you know, like we don't have a choice.

They're brilliant, but people always want to home in on one or two mistakes, what about the millions and billions of things they do which are good?

Sure, I love the brand so much that minor details like food safety, weights and measures, product labelling, correct pricing from label to till, paying their suppliers etc. are all quite irrelavant.

Really the laws should be more relaxed here, self-regulation is always best. Thinking more about this, maybe it should be illegal to label a food product correctly.

The argument that the country's largest food retailer knowingly, or much worse even, unknowingly, having sold 100's of millions of pet food burgers is of little concern to 99.9% of the general public or honest meat retailers


Tesco, got any PR jobs going? I have no ethics at all and could contribute greatly to squeezing your suppliers even more and cheating your customers. Also have a large stock of brown envelopes...

 

[simon field]

Sure, I love the brand so much that minor details like food safety, weights and measures, product labelling, correct pricing from label to till, paying their suppliers etc. are all quite irrelavant.

Really the laws should be more relaxed here, self-regulation is always best. Thinking more about this, maybe it should be illegal to label a food product correctly.

The argument that the country's largest food retailer knowingly, or much worse even, unknowingly, having sold 100's of millions of pet food burgers is of little concern to 99.9% of the general public or honest meat retailers


Tesco, got any PR jobs going? I have no ethics at all and could contribute greatly to squeezing your suppliers even more and cheating your customers. Also have a large stock of brown envelopes...

Assume made an ass of you and me, but I assume you won't be shopping there from now on then?

You know, as a kind of one man protest?

 

[Nuno]

Much food which is deemed unfit for human consumption is actually unlikely to have adverse effects on 95% of the population. Humanity tends to err on the side if safety when feeding itself unless the alternative is starvation.

It is highly unlikely that the unidentifiable horse meat was included to make the burger more expensive - ergo it was included to cheapen the end product.

Yes. And? Is somebody somewhere saying horse meat was used to make 7p burgers more expensive?
I though Earl was on his 'hols'.

 

[Esk247]

Yes. And? Is somebody somewhere saying horse meat was used to make 7p burgers more expensive?
I though Earl was on his 'hols'.

but but but but...you said....

The point a lot of us are missing is that we want cheap food but when given it we want quality and availability too. Ever had one of those clients who you want to tell: "You can have it cheap, fast and good. Chose any two of the above"?


So I read that as saying we should all accept our cheap burgers with horse meat and all other kinds of of non-disclosed ingredients?

I also read that as saying that you don't see why everyone is fussing about a bit of random horse meat turning up in burgers even though we have no idea where it came from, what the source of that ingredient is or anything about it and haven't heard anything since?

Are you an MP in disguise? You wouldn't have it on your plate but the plebs can eat it..and the dogs.

oh I forgot a smiley..hang on.. otherwise this will descend in to mud slinging again.

 

[simon field]

I'm off for a can of tuna-friendly dolphin

 

[Esk247]

I'm off for a can of tuna-friendly dolphin

I've already started on my bacon butty...with side order of otter.

 

[Nuno]

but but but but...you said....

The point a lot of us are missing is that we want cheap food but when given it we want quality and availability too. Ever had one of those clients who you want to tell: "You can have it cheap, fast and good. Chose any two of the above"?


So I read that as saying we should all accept our cheap burgers with horse meat and all other kinds of of non-disclosed ingredients?

I also read that as saying that you don't see why everyone is fussing about a bit of random horse meat turning up in burgers even though we have no idea where it came from, what the source of that ingredient is or anything about it and haven't heard anything since?

Are you an MP in disguise? You wouldn't have it on your plate but the plebs can eat it..and the dogs.

oh I forgot a smiley..hang on.. otherwise this will descend in to mud slinging again.

No, all I was saying is that price affects quality. Do you disagree?

The news coverage won't pick up again until there is something to report, which will be after investigations, except in the Daily Mail. There was a good 30 mins on it on Radio 4 that you might find interesting.The Food Programme, 15:30.