That's the next DNA to test for...

I don't think I've ever eaten a Findus product in my life, but I've had my fair share of Tesco produce. I don't eat beef though. Or I should say, I don't eat anything that claims to be beef. God knows what my vegi burgers are really made of!

Findus in Germany.

Edit: Scaling! On the original website, it is a thumbnail!

You never know what or who you may have eaten in a ready meal in the past. Or in a restaurant, for that matter. I made some quip last night along the lines of “well, at least they aren’t saying they are testing for whores’ DNA”. The response was “would they tell us if they did?”

Answer: yes - but expect fallout, and if you think you’ve seen outrage right now, hold on to your hats.

Sigged

I've been ignoring this whole thing but cannot help but thinking if you as a company go to Romania and such to buy the cheapest beef possible to then should you really be surprised when it's found out to have a bit of mystery meat in it? Same goes for the buyers, Tesco Value burgers and Findus Lasagne is hardly going to be full off the good stuff. It's cheap for a reason. Because it's [LIFTED]. If you want to ensure you;re eating good meat then don't buy [LIFTED].

/rant

Yes but if you buy Tesco value beef mince you do not expect it to be the top cuts of beef but you do at least expect it to be beef. Most mince is going to be the cheapest cuts of mince unless you mince it yourself. We all expect that they will fill it with filler like fat but do not expect it to be a different species.

There's a big difference between buying mince meat and buying ready meals or burgers. I agree with Veato, these ready products are crap, taste like crap and the companies producing them are going to dodgy places to get the meat. You get what you pay for. If you want decent food don't buy ready meals, buy your meat from a reputable butcher and make things from scratch.

I fully appreciate that the ready meal market has hidden flaw. I would expect the manufacturer would reduce the quality of meat and other ingredients to reduce the cost and increase levels of salt and sugar to make it taste good, but it still expected to contain the meat listed on the ingredients. Though the retailer who in the case of Tesco would specify the ingredients as it is their reputation that is on the line. When it comes to the quality of the ingredients you do not expect prime steak in value lasagne. In the US there was a massive scandal last year over "Pink slime" which was mechanically recovered "meat" but could be anything from the animal and had been treated in ammonia. I suspect that they may also be found in even top end ready meals from Marks and Spencer's but do they know? The manufacturers would have made efforts to cut the costs and pink slime and horse meat might be substituted. So would even a top of the range ready meal be safe?

Making meals from ingredients is sensible but many people do not want to, or have the time to do so. How many of us have prepared meals more than a couple of times a week?

The thing that gets me is ready meal spaghetti bolognese. I can see why someone might want to buy a ready meal version of something that's a bit complicated or long winded to make. Like maybe say a sunday roast or the like. But spag bol? It is literally the simplest thing people who can actually cook ever cook. It's the classic joke that every student can make it, because you can even manage it if you're otherwise utterly incompetent at anything approaching life.

If you don't want to make a complicated thing, fine. Take a short cut. But if you can't even be bothered to make spag bol you're frankly just a lazy fecker.

Jon

I make a chilli in a slow cooker. It takes around five minutes to prepare the meat and vegetables, then wake up to a cooked chilli. I do have some supermarket mince that I am using up. Once I have cleared it I have bought beef shin for making into mince and it is cheaper than what the supermarkets want for their value mince. Yet I know exactly what it is as I will be mincing it myself.

Though most people do have time constraints and so ready meals are a quick solution. Even if you reheat in the oven or microwave you can do other things while it is cooking. Standing over a hob for the time it takes to make spag bol is too much for some, and then how many will be using value beef/horse mince as part of their spag bol?

Mince ban' linked to horsemeat scandal'

Also just seen on Channel 4 news that they have found problems in a plant in Wales and Yorkshire. I think that this scandal will run and run for a good few months.

i hope it does as it will make more people aware of the food chain
which we seem to have lost control over

i have no problem with horse meat or any other meat, as long its stated.
as long as i am fully aware of the contents i can make a decision ...

just as an add on
it has been mentioned in parliament that 70,000+ registered horses in Ireland have gone missing ... ho hum ...

Horsemeat row: Slaughterhouse and meat firm raided

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

Time constraints on cooking are generally [LIFTED], what people are really saying is that they'd rather watch eastenders than cook. I'll grant people the cost thing though. I've seen those meal deals for four at tesco when you get a lasagne for four for 2.50 and thought there's no way you could make a lasagne that cheaply on ingredients only.

That said, you can cook fresh cheaply, you don't need meat every day. Why not eat veggie most of the week and treat yourself to some nice meat once or twice a week. Not only is it cheaper, it's better for you.

If you costed up the cheapest ingredients then you might be surprised.

There's probably only about 100g of animal flesh in that meal, and I doubt they're generous with the cheese either. The cheap meals often have soya in so reduce the meat even further. The rest is all very cheap; basically flour, onion and sieved tomatoes. I reckon you could make one twice the size for the same money. Especially if you're as enterprising as Amnesia and mince your own cheap cuts.

I find the biggest problem with home cooking is that you just can't make an individual meal like lasagne, because you can't for instance buy 20% of a pepper or 200g of meat. You need to cook enough to last a week in various guises. It does take time, effort and planning. I'm not sure everyone has the skill and patience to do it; especially those who were brought up to consider pre-made meals the norm.