The presence of horse meat in the burgers sold by Tesco and other supermakets does not pose any health issues. The presence of pig meat would undoubtedly upset those whose religions forbid its consumption.

However, it is concerning that the contamination was not detected by the supermarkets themselves during routine testing.

Presumably they specify standards for all meat products, so how many others have been supplied to them containing other meats?

Perhaps in the rush to make even higher profits, routine testing has been abandoned or reduced.

I went to check some burgers in the fridge and...they're off.
My wife asked me if I wanted a burger for lunch. I answered ...neigh
I admit the mane reason was I wondered if they would give me the trots

I've heard the veggie burgers are being tested for uniquorn

I told my wife I was so hungry I could eat a horse - she sent me to Tesco

LOL...giddy up blossom

Horseburgers = Shergar's bum (anag.)

This is the worrying thing for me. I would happily eat horse meat burgers and would go and buy some the day Tesco brought them out. But I find it extremely concerning that a product labelled as beef was 30% something else.

Meant hamburgers

improvement on the dogburgers.

I bet you'll find that this has been going on for quite a while and it's just that Tesco's have been found out, as they quickly claimed it's our suppliers fault.

Tesco are very strict on the suppliers to them, even ones from our international shores. It's so they can claim full traceabilty should things go wrong with meat!

It also proves that people can't trust whats on the label as it's obvious other things are put into the food sold in the supermarkets, and if it's something which people are becoming aware of, they just change the name and call it something else so the housewife doing the shopping is unaware of it.

Buy raw ingredients and make your own then you know what you're eating

Tesco and Iceland? What did you expect!

Two major companies that are bound by UK and European H&S laws and presumably have tracing/tracking records for their suppliers???
I would expect not to find horse or pig meat in a beef burger if it is not listed on the ingredients.

Oh please. They both sell cheap crap. It's rather naive to think something like this wouldn't happen

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=472407969461199

This is probably one of the funniest videos I've seen, I'd love to have the guts to do what they did lol

I expect a DNA test takes some time (days) to run so isn't practical to do as anything other than a spot check. The problem is these very cheap foods are sourced from all over so the supply chain gets very long. As I understand it the current suspect burgers started in Spain (or it might be the Netherlands) went to Ireland and then to the UK. But I've also read reports that the meat may have started off in Brazil before going to Spain.
Such are the dubious joys of globalisation
I usually make my own burgers from mince but who knows where that mince has actually come from...

Ha ha good one
Are ALL Tesco burgers affected or are (say) the Finest ones OK? I'd never buy frozen ones

Horse meat is normal fare in some countries, and in no way a public health issue.

But not putting on the label that the burger contains such is a bit bad.

But to be honest, if X supermarket had put in the teeny written list of ingredients on the label 'horse meat' how many people would have read it before buying.

None I expect.

When I buy a packet of frozen 'beef' burgers from a store I know that the amount of beef will be variable and that it will be padded out with all sorts of stuff.

Equally I take on trust that what's in the burger, although not healthy (come on it's a frozen burger!) is edible.

This is the case here, the burgers have been padded out with non beef, nothing dangerous, just not beef, along with all the E numbers and other crap in them.

Excuse me? What dog burgers?

I didn't expect this. What reputable places should we be getting our food from?

I don't have a problem with potentially haven eaten horse yes I eat Tesco Value Burgers I'm on a major budget ok its edible just about and does a few meals and basically fills a space when your hungry but I think it is more the fact that it can happen and be missed that concerns me as it makes you think what else could be getting missed.

I know a lot here say just buy the raw ingredients and make it yourself but I just can't afford to do that and have to rely on this kind of thing so I have to trust the supermarkets not to be messing with it. An example I did treat myself to 4 proper burgers from the butcher purely on the basis of the sign they had in the window in relation to this but that cost £2.40 whereas normally I get 8 for £1. Yes I know you get what you pay for but when you have a small budget "real" meat i.e not processed etc from the butchers is a luxury.

That said I did notice a difference in the taste of the burgers but would be interested to find out if that had anything to do with these revelations.

If I had the money I would happily give horse a try properly I've already tried Zebra and Kangaroo so horse can't be that much different from Zebra can it?

I bet we have been eating horse meat in pies and pasties for years!

Wait till they test those cheap meat pies.

Really? You expect tesco value burgers and Iceland produce to be top quality meat, not bulked out with whatever else they can get there hands on? Oh dear.... Well I suppose every little helps..

Exactly! If people eat cheap rubbish, what do they expect? It's a bit Sweeney Todd isn't it?

I clearly didn't say that. I expect them not to contain horse meat as would 99% of the population.

Oh so you've spoken to 99% of the population then? Great.

Oh you read what I wrote that time then?

How many people do you seriously think buy Beef Burgers and expect them to have horse meat in them?

What type of horses are they? I'll bet 10-1 they're not racehorses