Horsemeat lasagne sent to Stockholm's homeless

[The Straight Story]

Horsemeat lasagne sent to Stockholm's homeless

Several tonnes of frozen lasagne pulled from store shelves in Sweden because it contained horsemeat will be donated to Stockholm's homeless population by Swedish food retailer Axfood.

Axfood, one of several Swedish retailers affected by the horsemeat scandal, announced on Tuesday it was donating around five tonnes of frozen lasagne to the St. Clara church in Stockholm which will in turn distribute the food to the city's homeless population.

"Many have reacted that huge amounts of edible food would be thrown away," Axfood said in a statement.

"But it wasn't clear that it would be possible to give it away."

http://www.thelocal.se/46824/20130320/#.UUltvjei2So

They should start a new brand of lasagne there called Mr. Ed's

[Scootaloo]

1. Well, that's... good?

I mean, yeah, it's horsemeat, but it's already done... and wasting food when people are hungry is one of those things that I think could fall into the ranking of "evil"...

[The Straight Story]

2. Meh...sort of

My understanding is that some of the meat was problematical since they used anti-biotic in those horses not fit for humans. Not clear if it was all the horses in this whole scandal or the ones that went missing in the uk, etc.

[dusty trails]

3. Food is food

Horse steaks are served in classy restaurants in France. No reason the homeless can't eat horse meat lasagne.

[RudynJack]

5. 13 posts?

And positing something so silly?

Obvious troll is obvious.

[RandiFan1290]

6. bingo

but they now have permission to return as often as they want

[RudynJack]

7. how so?

Sorry to be obtuse, but what do you mean? You can PM me if necessary.

[Heidi]

16. RandiFan1290 may be referring

to Skinner's answers in this AtA thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1259455

[RandiFan1290]

17. Yes, thanks Heidi

We discussed it briefly in DU mail

[Heidi]

18. Good morning,

from drizzly southern Switzerland!

[RandiFan1290]

22. Good afternoon to you

from humid and soon to be rainy south Florida

[In_The_Wind]

21. imo: once a problem perhaps always a problem.

Having said that: if a returning zombie can behave so be it.

The real personality of the zombie will eventually turn nasty again.

I try to keep 'em on my radar. [img][/img]

[Heidi]

38. Good morning, I_T_W!

[In_The_Wind]

41. It will be a wonderful day, Heidi ... after I wake up!

Last night I was awake until 3 AM. [img][/img]
I am no longer to able to function 100% on less than 6 hours of sleep.
And while I may be posting half asleep, I still have no problem with comebacks when necessary.

How is Ginger? You and I haven't chatted in years. I miss the Nighthawks.

[backscatter712]

53. Exactly. Lots of people eat horse on purpose.

I've seen it in Europe myself.

[Quantess]

8. Hungry people will not care.

Besides, the horsemeat products were being sold to and eaten by unsuspecting customers for several weeks or months before it was caught.

I think it's better to not let it go to waste.

[RandiFan1290]

9. Yeah who cares if it's tainted meat

They are only poor people

[Quantess]

11. Well, it's their choice to accept or reject it.

They have been given the option to eat it.
I don't know what else you might be imagining, that you think hungry people are so stupid that they can't understand an explanation about it containing horsemeat? They can also be informed consumers as well, you know. Just because they are poor doesn't mean they are totally passive sitting there with mouths gaping open accepting whatever you shovel in there... they have the capacity to say no on their very own.

[RandiFan1290]

12. Are they being told it is horse meat?

Are they informed that it may be tainted as well? I doubt it.

[Quantess]

14. Well,

I can tell you that this has been huge news for weeks here in Sweden. It's up to you if you choose to "doubt" that anyone is informing the people that it is one of the packaged frozen meat products that has been in the news for several weeks now, that everyone has been talking about, but I don't see any basis for that doubt.

[RandiFan1290]

15. If they want to eat rat, dog, cat, whatever

These companies were sneaking this meat into the food to deceive people. I don't think they were concerned about quality control. I just hope they are testing to make sure it is not tainted before giving it away.

[demwing]

45. Honesty is not a pre-requisite to quality

Just because they scammed a cheap meat off as a premium meat does not make the cheap meat poisoned.

[hack89]

25. It is not tainted. There is no health risk. nt

[Renew Deal]

26. I didn't think the meat was tainted or unhealthy

I thought the problem was it was mislabeled as beef.

[RandiFan1290]

30. I wouldn't trust them with being concerned with quality control

if they were trying to pass off horse as beef. That was my only... beef

[Renew Deal]

34. That's a fair point

[demwing]

39. No, it doesn't follow at all

They're trying to scam a buck, not orchestrate wrongful death lawsuits.

[Quantess]

33. That was the main problem, as I have understood it.

It started with fresh pork being labeled as fresh beef in the food retailers beginning last summer, imported in from a couple of european countries (I can't remember which ones). Then it's been all over the news about the frozen convenience foods containing horsemeat when it was supposed to be beef. Those are processed in sweden, which makes it even more scandalous. The food labeling standards are generally pretty high in sweden.

Whether the horsemeat is tainted or unhealthy, that I don't know. I heard the horsemeat was imported from Romania and some other european countries that may not have the same meat quality controls that Sweden does.

thelocal.se is not a very good source of news. They report things of a controversial nature and a lot of time they don't tell the whole story. It is in english, which is the only good thing I can say about it.

[demwing]

32. Tainted? Nothing in the article says that.

Why are you saying so?

[RandiFan1290]

35. Becasue past stories talked about the meat possibly being tainted

I doubt quality control was an issue for them as they conducted their scam.

[Puglover]

42. Hey let's not let facts get in the way.

Horsemeat is protein. Years ago I had an absolutely delicious Steak Frite in Paris. I found out later it was horse. I live in Ecuador and we (especially the locals) eat and enjoy cuy. Guinea Pigs raised for food.

I can hear the heads exploding now.

[demwing]

44. OK, I get it that some people might find horse meat icky

but that's far from tainted.

And I don't think such scant evidence should be justification for shaming a fellow DUer.

Someone wrote about it previously? Who? Where? When? Under what circumstances?

[RandiFan1290]

59. Here ya go

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/world/drugged-american-horsemeat-sold-europe

This was a big concern when the story broke. These horses are not raised for food. There is a big difference.

[HiPointDem]

10. hope they told them it was horsemeat, so they'd have the chance to decide whether

they cared or not.

[Quantess]

13. I can't imagine anyone doesn't already know...

Or if someone didn't know, someone would have told them.
I've been living in Sweden since this scandal broke out, and it's pretty well known that horsemeat was used, and falsely labeled as beef.
Also, the attitude about horsemeat is a lot less taboo here, so I mean it when I say that many swedes don't really care if they are eating horsemeat. For some people horsemeat is not a dealbreaker.

[HiPointDem]

28. in a homeless shelter? i can.

[Quantess]

61. Did you even read past the title of my post?

I have already written plenty of substantial "meat" about this topic, (no pun intended).
Am I asking too much of my fellow DUers here...?

[HiPointDem]

72. yes, i did. nothing there to make me change my opinion, which is based on work in shelters.

[Quantess]

19. HiPointDem:

I think it was you that I lashed out at a couple of days ago. I apologize for my rudeness.

[HiPointDem]

27. I don't remember particularly, but thanks for the courtesy. I don't hold grudges generally & am

not made of sugar candy. I can get pretty testy myself.

[Quantess]

36. Good.

It wasn't anything personal. I was just in a bad mood and used a poor choice of words.

[HereSince1628]

68. Some of the hungry may not care.

Providing culturally appropriate food actually is a goal for most organized groups working on the problem of hunger.

In the US there is a general perception that 'beggars can't be chosers'. However, the hungry also have religious, moral values, and common cultural orientations that influence identity of foods as inappropriate.

Consequently, treating the poor with dignity does requires sensitivity to more than calories and grams of protein.

Having said that, I do think properly labelled horse meat could certainly be incorporated into food for the hungry in a sensitive way.

[HappyMe]

20. If I'm homeless and hungry,

I doubt I would care if it was horsemeat or not.

[In_The_Wind]

23. Edible food should not be waisted.

[LWolf]

24. You are edible.

Regardless of your waist size.

[Renew Deal]

29. Ummmmm

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/bizarre&id=9015582

[In_The_Wind]

37. I was trying to forget that!

[img][/img] I haven't had coffee yet this morning. [img][/img]
Oh and, DU is bloodthirsty this morning. Looks like an interesting day in GD.
I'm heading back to LBN.

Seriously. Thank you for this reminder because I live in N. Y.

[LWolf]

63. Whatever.

Biocentrism is not cannibalism.

[In_The_Wind]

31. I was a food broker: lots of nourishing food is tossed into the trash daily.

When I was the manager on a Carvel location I made sure that ice cream cakes for holidays were given away if they became an overstock.

Now about me: when I am dead and gone my body is of no use to me.
I don't believe that we have reached a soylent green level yet. My body will be cremated

Oh and: Thank you for kindly pointing out that my aging sleepy brain made yet another mistake.

Waste not. Want not.

Now is it clear to you LWolf.

[LWolf]

62. It's clear.

I don't know that my point is clear to you.

You said edible food should not be wasted. I said you were edible, and therefore, food.

I would feed In_The_Wind Lasagna to the hungry before I'd feed horse meat to anyone except feline rescue facilities for endangered big cats, and then only after the horse had died of a peaceful old age.

My mares appreciate that about me. I don't support speciesism. I'm more bio-centric.

[In_The_Wind]

66. I am not interested in using horse meat instead of cow's meat.

I clearly understood you. I love horses. I am not meat to be fed to the hungry.

Perhaps it would be better to feed LWolf Lasagna to the hungry.

Just leave the gray wolf alone!

[LWolf]

69. If that's what you understood,

then I'm sure you understand that horses are not meat to be fed to the hungry.

Once I'm gone, I'd like to be cremated, but if the hungry need my carcass, they can have it.

[In_The_Wind]

70. Of course. Why would I want to disrespect something so beautiful.

[bowens43]

40. Is this a bad thing? If so, why?

I really dont understand all this anti-horse meat stuff. Meat is meat. We eat cows, pigs sheep etc how is that different than eating horses?

[Scout]

58. most horses are not raised as human food.

many of the drugs used to treat their illnesses (bute for one) render their flesh not safe to consume.

unless you have strict quality control and can prove the horse was raised without any of the drugs, then it is likely that it's unsafe.

[Puglover]

43. Good God how utterly foolish.

Meat is protein and people eat protein. Here in Ecuador we eat Cuy(Guinea Pigs raised for consumption) served whole on a plate. It's not bad if prepared correctly and the local folks love it.

I am trying to cut the meat out of my diet and do grains fruits and vegetables. They are spectacular here.

But when folks make this distinction it just cracks me up.

[demwing]

46. I know right? One man's pet is another man's entre

If you accept meat eating, accept it. There's nothing sacred about a horse.

[Puglover]

48. I will admit because of my Western mindset

the idea of some Chinese folks eatting dog and cat is absolutely disgusting and I hope they outlaw it. So I certainly am not above the same feelings. But logically speaking it IS in fact the same thing.

[MineralMan]

47. Cuy - Tastes just like rabbit.

It does, actually. I've had both, and they are very similar. Now, squirrels and woodchucks have a different sort of flavor than rabbit. All are rodents, though, and are perfectly edible. I don't understand why people react differently to meat from different animals. It makes no sense. It's meat.

[Puglover]

49. Mmmmm

to me not "just like" Maybe rabbit with something else going on. It certainly is not a lean meat. I get the feeling there is a real art to preparing it well.

[MineralMan]

50. I actually had it here in the US, at an Argentinian restaurant.

I'm an adventurous eater, and will always order something I have not tried if it is available. There are few meats that I have not eaten that are normally eaten anywhere in the world. I've not had any carnivorous animal's meat, except for bear, but bears are more omnivorous than carnivorous, anyhow.

My poor wife wrinkles up her nose when I order something unusual, but she does enjoy eating at unusual ethnic restaurants, so that's the chance she takes. She's less adventurous than I am, though. Oddly enough, it seems like everyone, everywhere eats chicken in some form or another, so that's a frequent choice for her, while I'm eating my kangaroo or camel or whatever.

Life's an adventure. It should be thoroughly explored, I think.

[demwing]

51. Fish are carnivorous

Some are bottom feeders. I've also had Alligator and snake.

[MineralMan]

52. That is true. I've eaten all sorts of fish, for sure.

That includes a lot of species most people think they don't like, even though they've never tried them.

[backscatter712]

54. Mmmmm... blackened catfish!

And I too have tried alligator!

[Peter cotton]

55. I had horse for lunch just last week when I was in Iceland.

As long as it's properly prepared, what's the big deal?

(it was yummy, btw)

[MineralMan]

57. I went to a horsemeat restaurant in France,

just so I could try it. That was back in the mid-80s. I had a small filet. It was very good. That's the only horsemeat I've eaten.

[Quantess]

60. I have eaten it twice in my life, and I didn't like it either time.

It tastes gamey, and not in a good way.

However, I don't feel worse about eating horse meat than I do pig meat or cow meat or turkey meat, or... It's not morally worse to eat horse meat, in my opinion. It just tastes kind of weird.

[LWolf]

64. As long as you don't

discriminate against any species as a food source, I guess there's some logic in that, if no ethics.

If you're going to leave ethics out of what's appropriate to eat, then I suggest putting CEOs on the menu. Or do you make distinctions, after all?

[Puglover]

67. LOL

Alrighty then!

[Liberal_in_LA]

56. ugh

[forestpath]

65. So it's not good enough for people with money to eat, but it's just A-OK for the homeless.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

71. I got served horsemeat at a country inn in Japan

It's edible, and it's a regular part of the cuisine in many countries.

I don't get the big deal, other than it being falsely labeled as beef.