Danger on Europe's Dinner Plate

                           

           The recent discovery of horse meat being labeled as beef in Europe has caused a huge alert for the European Union. Not only are people now concerned about what is being labeled correctly, but what is actually safe to eat?

           The European Union has a very strict policy on what products should be allowed into its home market. Horse meat from the United States is one product that is not allowed to be imported into the E.U. The reasons as to why they don't allow horse meat imported from the United States is because of different types treatments the U.S. uses on its products. For example the E.U. authorities banned American pork from being imported into its market because American producers treat the animals with ractopamine, a drug used as a feed additive to promote leanness in animals for their meat. The E.U. forbidden's the use of certain drugs on animals for human consumption, therefore it is dangerous for the people consuming these products, not knowing what is used to harvest these animals. Another example is American chicken because carcasses are bathed in chlorine.
            Despite all the important policies and food safety regulations the E.U. has, more than hundreds of thousand of animals are imported into the E.U. from American products. The majority of the horses being shipped to the E.U. comes from Canada and Mexico but the horse come straight from the United States making its way throughout various European countries.
            It is highly acknowledge that there is a high level of fraud involved with these products being shipped into the E.U. without being properly labeled. The E.U. authorities are currently investigating the situation more.

-Contributed by Kevin Riveros



http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/opinion/global/questions-for-the-global-horse-meat-industry.html?ref=foodsafety&_r=0