Britsh Meat

[malteser1]

Now that we know why we get cheap food deals from food stores,why not help our own economy and buy just british meat?If the demand will be high surely that the prices wil not be that high? How can imported meat be that cheaper.

[Captin Kirk]

The same reason anything manufactured in this country is more expensive than goods produced in countries where workers earn pennies. Also the "meat" in question is usually reclaimed from the carcass after being stripped of the quality cuts.

[Mattk]

I would imagine demand is not that high for burgers and other related newsworthy items at the moment. The media will have scared off a lot of consumers and they will take time to return.
Deals will be necessary to coax people back but I would imagine the EU has something to do with meat sourcing not to mention that we probably do not produce sufficient here in the UK to support the country as a whole.

Also, budget burgers need only contain 29% meat so I'm not sure sourcing meat from abroad contributes greatly to the cheap price.

[TheHangman]

Euro is why certain rules and regs can make European beef cheaper than our own. A Spanish farmer earned a lot of money exporting cattle to Italy to his own company, who then sold the cattle to a third company, who then sold the cattle back to the farmer in Spain. Euro gave him a grant for each sale. He made a fortune. The same rules say that we in Britain must buy a certain amount of beef from Europe so our beef prices are inflated to encourage those sales. Which is why are farmers are going to the wall as quickly as our pubs.

[EDDIE51]

Sorry malteser but you are not 'street wise' in the ways of the food trade.
Any meat that has been processed in any way in the UK can be labeled as 'British meat' It can be imported and then cut up or minced in the UK and it can be labeled as 'British Meat' . As I just said on another thread this little country of ours could never come near to producing enough meat to satisfy demand. Probably only 10% at most of what is sold as British Meat is actually reared ,slaughtered and butchered in this country.
If you really insist on eating only certified and traceable 'British Meat' you are going to have to pay 5 to 10 times what you pay now.

[IggyB]

TheHangman your post doesn't seem to make much sense, if its a joke sorry if I've missed the point. why do you think a farmer and associated suppliers would get a grant for moving meat around the EU? And also why do you think there is a rule / regulation that requires the UK to import a certain amount of meat from the EU - how do you see this working as imports are undertaken by private businesses based on commercial reason, do you think these businesses are given a quota from some government organisation somewhere or do you think the UK government directly imports meat in order to meet this alleged rule / regulation?

[emmie]

whilst i agree with you, how can we be 100 percent sure it's British meat products. Labelling on goods is often misleading, and as we are discovering what it says on the package ain't necessarily so. And as others have pointed out is more often or not a lot more expensive. And the fact is many people are struggling with bills, so may have to economise in other ways.

[dave50]

It's the best thing that could have happened for British local butchers.

[sandyRoe]

And vegetarian ready meals too

[888sally888]

Our local butcher uses all local suppliers and we also have a local farm where they produce their own meat.

It would be great if we all used local small businesses and supported the UK.

PS I am so happy to be a veggie!!

[Old_Geezer]

I'm happy you're a veggie too.

All the more meat for the rest of us :-)

[jake-the-peg]

Sorry Slaughterhouses in Wales and Yorkshire have now been found out too

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21434077

There's clearly been a change in testing that has caught out a widespread issue - just blaming it on Romanians or Welsh isn't good enough.

We need properly effective European wide controls

[jake-the-peg]

PS Sally

Glad you're a Vegetarian

How confident are you that there's no GM in the food you are eating?

[Peter Pedant]

yeah Dave 50 has got it ! go to your local butcher


and buy the video ! Le Boucher - Claude Chabrol I think. doesnt have much horsemeat in it thank god

I thought the minister was very slow to realise that flogging (ha!) horsemeat as beef was a criminal offence - trading standards isnt it ? Presumably that sort of thing is a bit above his pay grade.

[jake-the-peg]

It's a criminal offence if you know that's what it is

The problem is in the process, the number of middle-men is making traceing food back to the source difficul

That means the temptation is to cut corners thinking you won't get caught.

And that's happening because we're treating food as a commodity

If it's easy to trace where the food comes from there'll be less incentive for people to try and make a fast buck like this

[TheHangman]

Iggyb, its based on fact the farmer was given a grant for exporting each head of beef, given a grant for exporting from both countries. He was eventually caught and fined as it was the same cattle going from a-b -c -a often the cattle were not even leaving the transport vehicle. Britain is penalized by Europe in the fact that we make some of the biggest contributions and least benefit from its grants. Has European farmers benefit far more than our farmers from these grants they are able to sell far cheaper than our farmers. Not only that but many European many farmers are not governed by the strict livestock laws that our farmers are in relation to the conditions that livestock kept under, which again reduces prices.

[ludwig]

I think people should eat less processed meat generally. About the only meat product I eat that I can't be sure what's in it is sausages.

All my other meat is bought as cuts straight off the animal like joints, steaks, bacon, chicken pieces etc that I can see exactly what it is, and usually where it's come from.
Obviously there are still issues of animal welfare, provenance etc, but I'd sooner trust it than what goes into a factory made pie.

I wouldn't dream of putting a doner kebab into my system for example.

[LazyGun]

Oops posted this in error under the "Horsemeat" thread

Some figures on meat consumption, beef production in the UK for your enjoyment ;)

Average intake of meat by your average british consumer has increased by around 50% over the last 40 years or so.

Average daily intake of protein ( of which 65% estimated to be meat , or processed meat, and for all sources of meat for your average consumer) is 0.82Kg - And nutritionists estimate we probably eat around 25% more than we actually should, from a health perspective.

UK total national consumption of beef annually ( note, this is for Beef only) is estimated to be 1million tonnes.

The amount of beef from one beef steer = 220 Kg

Estimated number of beef steer consumed by your average UK consumer over a lifetime - 8 ( along with 550 poultry birds, 36 pigs, 36 sheep)

Number of UK reared beef cattle slaughtered in the UK each year = 2.2 million, or around 484,000 tonnes per year, or roughly half the UK total beef consumption per year.

[modeller]

I don't know about food stuffs but several years ago I knew a carpet dealer who sent a load to France but was unable to sell them so he exported them back to himself and made more money from the export grant than he would have made selling them. I was told he did the same thing many times but inflated the declared value which in turn increased the grant.

I remember a Panorama programme which showed the same lorries crisscrossing the channel four times a day. Some had been doing it for so long the lorry canvas covers were covered in moss.

hangman #He was eventually caught and fined as it was the same cattle going from a-b -c -a often the cattle were not even leaving the transport vehicle.#

I find that interesting as how would anyone know and the rules only applied to exports not what happened to the goods. At one stage on Panorama the lorries didn't even leave the docks only the drivers and paperwork changed.

It also shows what a farce inport/export figures are, when so much of is the same goods going round and around.

[emmie]

we have no local butchers, they went when the big supermarket started up.

[craft1948]

Had an email from the director of Waitrose this morning assuring me there is no horsemeat in any of their products, but saying they have found pork in their beef meatballs. If I'd like to return any meatballs they will give me a full refund and a new product of choice free of charge.