‘Short cuts’ to blame in scandal says farm shop
Eddie Partyka of Bates Butchers
The uncovering of the scandal which has seen dozens of beef products containing traces of horse meat has come as no surprise to a number of our butchers and farm shops.
Products made by a number of supermarkets and multinational food firms, such as Findus, have been found to contain various amounts of horse meat.
Kirsty Clarke, of Waterloo Cottage Farm in Great Oxendon, said she and her husband Angus had set up their farm and shop partly because of their lack of confidence in meat they were buying from supermarkets.
She added: “If the driver is profit and the people making the decisions are remote from the customers then every short cut will be explored.
“The result will be low quality animal welfare, battery chickens and pigs fed on processed foods which contain growth enhancers.
“Supermarkets selling processed food high in salt to disguise flavour and preservatives to enhance the shelf life are creating a world of attention deficiencies, allergies, asthma and cancer.”
Kirsty said because the majority of Waterloo’s food is produced just yards away from the shop, customers can always be confident they will be getting what is described.
She added: “Our passion is to create an environment where animals eat their natural foods, remain happy for longer and produce a quality product that is lower in total fat, has✿ a healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids and✿ lower in the saturated fats linked with heart disease.”
Amy Matthews, of Bates Butchers in Harborough’s Church Square, said she believed consumer expectation of cheap prices had helped fuel the scandal.
She said: “People don’t always want to pay a lot for their food and the supermarkets look for ways of keeping their costs down. I think the supermarkets have obviously cut corners and abattoirs have done it as well to save money.
“But I think people always knew that if they were paying a low cost for their meat then they were not always getting good quality.”
Amy said Bates is able to track exactly where all of its meat has come from – and most of the products sold in the shop are sourced within 15 miles.
She added: “Apart from some of our pork which is sourced from a farm in Sussex most of our products are from small farms based in our area.
“That means if we have any issues with any of the products we can very easily trace the meat back to where we purchased it from.”
Amy added that they had seen a number of new customers in recent weeks since the scandal emerged.
She added: “Some of them come in and tell jokes, but others say they are not going to the supermarkets for their meat now.”
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Weather for Market Harborough
Wednesday 22 May 2013
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