• Question: how is eating horsemeat different to beef and how do you test for horsemeat.

    Asked by jonty to Jen, Jill, Mel, Phil, Stef on 14 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Melissa Brereton

      Melissa Brereton answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      I think the difference between eating horsemeat and beef is mainly in people’s mind. I think it the thought of eating a horse, which many people consider like a pet, that upsets people.

      To test for horse meat you remove the DNA from the meat and you compare it to the DNA from horses which we have on big databases. If it is similar, you can be sure that the meat originally came from a horse

    • Photo: Stefan Piatek

      Stefan Piatek answered on 16 Mar 2013:

      Melissa is exactly right, eating horses would probably be more environmentally friendly than cows (cows burp up loads of methane!)

      DNA is the blueprint of the cells, and you can think of it like a book. You can search for a certain paragraph in the book and see how much of it there is, in this case you would search for a lot of paragraphs that are specific to each animal you want to test for!

    • Photo: Jennifer Paxton

      Jennifer Paxton answered on 16 Mar 2013:

      Nothing is different really, expect as Melissa says, people tend to think of horses more like pets and that makes it more difficult for people to imagine eating. Lots of countries all over the world eat horses, but the UK and the USA are more against it.

      I know a few people who have tasted it and say it tastes quite like beef actually! I’ve never tried it (at least not knowingly….! 😉 )

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