There seems to be a lot of people who find the Horse Meat situation to be very funny.
Jokes are constantly being posted online and it even seems to be a laughing matter on the radio too.
I, on the other hand, am not laughing.
At all!
Lasagne happens to be Roo's favourite food and I often buy her a frozen one when I do my shopping. On my last trip to the supermarket they did not have the usual brand that I would purchase. It was out of stock. I managed to find an alternative for Roo and on Wednesday evening she ate it for her dinner.
This alternative was a Findus Beef Lasagne.
I thought nothing more of it and then on Thursday evening, much to my horror, I saw the following tweet from Sky News -
"Food Standards Agency urges consumers not to eat Findus beef lasagne products as they may contain veterinary drugs"
I must admit I had a little panic.
I had fed my 5 year old daughter something that could contain a dangerous drug that is not suitable for human consumption!
It sent shivers down my spine.
Google then informed me that 11 out of 17 Findus beef lasagnes that had been tested had been found to contain 100% horse meat.
I felt sick.
Now, don't get me wrong, I understand that horse meat is safe for human consumption and is not harmful in itself, but it's the idea of it.
The issue of trust.
Can we ever trust manufacturers again? Can we ever feel secure that we are actually eating what it says on the packaging?
Obviously I won't be telling Roo about the horse meat in her lasagne, but could you imagine if she found out?
The poor child would be scarred for life.
Horse meat is not something I would ever dream of eating, and the idea that we may have been tricked into eating it and lied to by manufacturers, that we trust to produce food and inform us of its content, makes my blood boil.
How could they betray us in such a way?
There may be some of you reading this wondering why I am making such a fuss.
"Drama Queen"
But put yourself in my shoes. How would you feel if you found out that the meal you fed to your young daughter didn't contain what it should have, and to top it all off you couldn't even be reassured that it was safe for human consumption.
That it could have contained a veterinary drug called Phenylbutazone.
A drug used to treat horses that, when consumed by humans, can cause things such as nausea, vomiting, rashes, dizziness, drowsiness, headache, blurred vision, gastrointestinal bleeding, hepatitis, jaundice and renal failure.
This is only a handful of the harmful side effects that Phenylbutazone can cause.
The list goes on and on.
This is what I fed my daughter, and the products still haven't been tested to check for the drug.
Unlike many, I can't just take my lasagne back to the shop for a refund. It was too late for that.
It had already been consumed.
By a 5 year old girl !!
Do you still think it's funny?
Missy x
