The furore which erupted after horsemeat DNA was found in beef burgers being sold in Tesco supermarkets in the UK (sourced from a location in Ireland) appears to have bypassed us here in Malta, along with most of the rest of Europe, apparently.

I am unsure as to the principal reason why the British were so upset but put it down, quite justifiably I might add, to the fact that they were uninformed that horsemeat was one of the ingredients of the burgers and that such vital information was not disclosed on the product packaging.

However, while horsemeat is an acquired taste, these noble creatures are, or so we are reliably informed,in the end dispatched in almost exactly the same way as cattle (supposedly as humanely as possible, whatever that means) and their meat is a much-prized food source (not by me, I might add) and in demand throughout Europe, also to a lesser extent in Malta.

After all, horse flesh was the only source of meat in the UK by the end of World War II due to rationing and was widely, and uncomplainingly, used in all manner of meat dishes at that time.

Now we also source some meat products from Ireland, so could our burgers also contain some unadvised horse flesh – and do we care or want to know? Will McDonald’s or Burger King tell us if this is the case in Malta?

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.