Frozen lasagna products have been pulled off the shelves in the UK with concerns of mislabeled meat. The discovery has appeared less than a month after tests resulted in burgers with horse DNA. Horse meat was found in approximately 20 tested lasagna products, according to UK’s Food Standard Agency, who now is demanding retailers dig into deeper investigations with all processed food items. The lasagna, “lasagne” in British terms, was sold by UK company Findus and testing revealed food showing close to three quarters of the food involved horse meat.
A culinary taboo in many parts of the world, eating horse is not acceptable, especially when falsely labeled as beef. Customers have the right to know what they are eating whether it’s chemicals or horse meat. While horse meat is accepted in certain areas of the globe, mostly Central Asia, English speaking countries and most of Europe consider it a taboo, a thought process that goes back to ancient times when the Norsemen utilized horses as loyal working creatures which later evolved as good companions onward to being pets.
History tells us that wild horses were hunted then eaten for protein in Paleolithic times. Horse meat is a good source of protein. In fact, it is a very lean food and quite high in powerful Omega 3 fatty acids, the essential good fats that bodies need to survive. Grass fed beef contain Omega 3’s as well, just not as much as horse. There are approximately 115 calories per 3 ounce piece of horse meat compared to 120 in a slab of beef sirloin, according to online site Nutrition Data. There are no worries concerning sugar in horse meat. It has no fiber as well. But horse meat is packed with potent minerals including:
- zinc
- potassium
- selenium
- phosphorus
Also it is low in sodium.
So, if eaten by mistake and not knowing what went down, eating horse isn’t harmful and not considered a safety risk. There is concern if the horse has been treated with a veterinary drug phenylbutazone, treatment used as an anti-inflammatory to reduce pain in horses. It affects humans by destroying white blood cells and causing Aplastic Anemia.
While humor and bad jokes surface online and through the media about the scandalous situation, it is no laughing matter when it comes to knowing what goes into our diet.
Sources:
“Horse meat in Food Stirs Furor in British Isles” New York Times; Stephan Castle; February 8, 2013
Wikipedia.com/horse meat
“Would you Eat Horse Meat?”; Rodale News
NutritionData.com/horse, raw
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