Should we trust labels ?
Mar 5th, 2013 by annemazin
A few months ago, the horsemeat scandal exploded in Europe, letting companies accusing their distribution channels and consumers outraged. Everything started with suspicions about presence of horsemeat in burgers in England and Ireland.Tests were carried out on frozen dinners like lasagna or frozen spaghetti and it resulted that some of them contained more than 60 percent of horse meat. The problem here was that those frozen dishes were labeled as beef horse and were not supposed to contain horse meat at all. Moreover, horses are seen as companions and sporting animals only. After those dinners were analyzed, it resulted than there were not healthy risks.
However, the core of the problem was deeper : there were actually no transparency about the product, companies using horsemeat instead of beef because it was cheaper. To put it in a nutshell, companies were lying to consumers about what they were buying and this is a violation of the trust on which is based the relationship buyer-seller. And trust is mandatory for an exchange between to occur.
However, there are still some people who benefit from that scandal. Here in Canada, more people are trying this type of meat. According to Bill desBarres, chairman of the Horse Welfare Alliance of Canada, the scandal in Europe have raised consumer interest and people want to taste horsemeat. In Quebec, grocery stores like Metro or IGA sell the product. In Ontario, some restaurants like La Palette in Toronto, serve two horse tenderloin dishes. As well, this horsemeat scandal has helped fish sales to jump up over 20% in the European Union. As a result, lobster prices that have been stuck at $5 a pound for ages, recently reached $10.
source links =
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2013/04/02/pei-horse-meat-lobster-price-584.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/02/11/horsemeat-europe-scandal.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2013/02/22/can-horsemeat-europe-scandal-canada-foodie.html