Hate to say I told you so #horsemeat

One of the frustrating things about Europe's current horsemeat crisis is that welfare groups in Ireland warned the Department of Agriculture many times about the problems of horses being transported live to Europe. These animals were known not to have passports and dealers openly admitted (also documented in the UCD report of 2010) that forging passports to get horses into factories wasn't an issue.

For many years I have helped the Irish Horse Welfare Trust to try and heighten awareness of the neglect of horses and the issue of live transport. For cattle and sheep transported to Europe or elsewhere there are strict regulations on travel times and welfare, none of which exist for horses. Horses are not checked at Irish ports before they travel for health or individual identification. This free movement of horses under the tripartite agreement between England, Ireland and France was identified in the UCD report as detrimental to bio-hazard controls - laughable now we have proof that many of these horses were going for human consumption. Authorities here denied that Irish horses could be going into the food chain until a Dutch processor in Nijnegan was revealed last week to be selling Irish and Dutch horsemeat as beef. This piece of news closed the circle in effect, though it's still not clear whether this meat came from carcasses killed in Irish abattoirs or from the live trade.

www.IHWT.ie

What we also know is that of the five Irish plants who were granted licenses to slaughter horses to cope with the surplus of horses after our boom years, only two are operating horse slaughtering at present. Why? Because there are much larger numbers (the department estimates around 16,000 horses) going out live on lorries to Europe.

horse transport

If 12500 equines were killed in licensed slaughterhouses (excluding the knackery system) here in 2011, why the larger number of animals going for live transport with its additional costs? Think about it. You have to have a passport (albeit very easy to obtain) to bring a horse to a factory here. Not so if it is killed abroad, even in the UK. The USPCA have identified false passports and forged veterinary signatures used on passports of animals going on the live trade, some which have been dosed with bute or other drugs. So of course the numbers are bigger - it's far easier to get them into a factory in Poland or Italy than in Ireland, as loose as the system here is.

I have two horses, both of whom I could apply for a passport for tomorrow from the 12 agencies allowed to issue them and get both into a factory next week. That's no reflection on B and F Meats et al. It is an illustration of how the passport and identification scheme doesn't work. This situation has been pointed out to the department many times - by myself, the IHWT, the USPCA and the SPCAs involved with horse welfare and rescue. The lack of regulation has been boiling under the surface for so long that it comes to no surprise to anyone involved in horse welfare or movement that there is horsemeat in the food chain. Horses are sold in Ireland for as little as 10 euro. Last year I loaded up a horse with an IHWT officer outside Bray that had been stabbed in the shoulder and was living on a piece of scrap land with no feed or water. It had been sold to a 10 year old child for 30 euro. Doubtless, its destiny was a lorry to Europe before we got hold of it.

An IHWT project on urban horse welfare in Limerick

What has been of little mention throughout this debate is the welfare issues involved here. Horses are put on lorries that are injured, about to foal or dying. Can you imagine the hellish journey these animals go through without food or water to be slaughtered in hellish conditions like those filmed by hidden cameras at the UK abattoir.

What the horsemeat scandal has revealed is there is overwhelming problems with the equine identification and movement system. Vets need to go back into ports, and the passport system enforced. Having a scheme in place is nonsense without enforcement.

These points were put to the Department of Agriculture's chief veterinary office Martin Blake on Primetime by broadcaster Claire Byrne and myself in a segment on the horsemeat issue. It seems there is little admission of the scale of the problem or how long it has been going on for. All I can hope is that recent events will speed up the will to look again at the tripartite agreement. Something radical needs to happen about the welfare and slaughter issues at the heart of this trade, let alone the dangers for us humans the consumers. You can view the segment at the link below.

http://www.rte.ie/news/player/prime-time/2013/0218/

Irish food culture is a game of two halves, where those at the bottom will suffer the most

Irish horses destined for the food chain

As the horsemeat scandal widens to include giant food labels like Nestle and the worlds biggest beef processor JBS, again we see food fraud not happening at farm level but at secondary processing level and the trade of "beef" in a snakes and ladders game encompassing a global set of players.

In short, the DNA tests carried out in Ireland by the FSAI opened a Pandora's Box of food chain nightmares. As the crisis sucks in more countries, it may seem like vindication for the Irish beef sector but is of little value to us consumers, especially those who shop at the lower end of food budgets, relying on processed foods and ready meals as family staples.


What the horsemeat scandal reveals is that Ireland's food culture is a tale of two halves. At one end of the scale, 'Artisan' meats like Aberdeen Angus Rib Eye and wild Irish game star on restaurant menus. Irish food has never been more vogueish. It is gushed over, photographed and blogged about on the 400-plus food blogs dedicated to Irish food alone.

Boning hall at a processor

On the other side of the Irish eating experience are the €1 fast food hamburger. The rashers that are retailing this week at €1 a pack. The Tesco Everyday Value burgers that sold for €1.41 (17 cent for a burger) until the FSAI revealed that at least one of them contained as much as 29pc equine DNA.

As family income crashed in recent years, so did our grocery spend. While foodies shopped at classy delicatessens, award-winning butchers and farm gates, on the poor side of town, consumers flocked to the discounters and got their grocery spend down from €200 a week to €60.

In a depressed marketplace, the Irish supermarkets engaged each other in aggressive price wars. Since 2005, food prices in the UK have increased by as much as 35pc. By comparison, prices in Ireland rose by only 3 to 4pc, despite the fact that prices in the euro area as a whole increased by 15pc. Consumers benefited and we trusted the food chain not to let us down. That trust was not to prove well-founded.

The FSAI's initial DNA tests were conducted on 'value' frozen burgers and supermarkets' own-brand ready meals. Did they know something that we didn't?

What became evident was that the system broke down, not on Irish farms but at the secondary processing phase – where meat is ground for burgers, and mixed with beef trim, fillers and a wide range of ingredients for ready meals.

Silvercrest Foods had a chain of at least three different suppliers involved in providing one single ingredient for the product. Exactly how many suppliers are involved in the production of one burger?

Is the price point simply too low to supply safe food? If not, is somebody creaming off the fat and who exactly are they?

Irish farmers get between 30pc and 40pc of the retail price of primary cuts of meat. They claim that there are three big operators in beef in Ireland – ABP, Kepak and Dawn Meats pay roughly the same prices for cattle despite allegedly being in competition.

Map of Europe's horsemeat trail

In late 2012, just as the price of beef in Ireland was hitting a healthy €4 a kilo, it suddenly tailed off despite low supplies in the UK. This gave a 50 cent per kilo advantage on animals killed there. As our biggest export market is the UK, why were factories here paying around two hundred euro less on finished animals?

The lid needs to be lifted on the precise relationship between beef processors and supermarkets. Ironically, just as the horse-burger story broke, the UK government, on the recommendation of the Competition Commission, appointed their grocery ombudsman to monitor the behaviour of supermarkets.

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney said this week that similar Irish legislation is expected this term. The same promise was made at an Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture four years ago, where I gave evidence on the need to bring in a body to police the unfair balance of power in the system. It wasn't news then, like it isn't now.

It is worrying that what began with cheap food has made its way up the ladder. Horse DNA was found in burgers made by ABP at Silvercrest/ABP for the Co-Operative supermarket in the UK, known for its attention to provenance. Does risky sourcing become a money-making trick as we move further up the chain?

The majority of Irish consumers are caught at the cheap end of the grocery business. It's urgently clear that consumers need protection in the form of a supermarkets' ombudsman. If this is not the time to introduce one, then when is?

Inhumane, poorly regulated and bad for human health. How did horsemeat end up in Irish burgers?

Irish agriculture hit the news worldwide this week with the discovery of horse DNA in supermarket burgers. The affair began on Tuesday when the Food Safety Authority here released results on tests for porcine and equine DNA in 27 Irish supermarket burgers. 13 tested positive for horse DNA.  The product with the highest level (29 per cent) of equine DNA was Tesco Everyday Value burgers. They cost 1.41 for eight burgers but have now been removed from the marketplace. 

These particular burgers contained 17 ingredients: meat content (63 per cent), onion (10 per cent),wheat flour, water, beef fat, soya protein isolate, salt, onion powder, yeast, sugar, barley malt extract, garlic powder, white pepper extract, celery extract and onion extract. One of these ingredients contained horse DNA via what is now identified as a supply chain in the Netherlands or Spain. It was most likely some kind of protein powder filler which are common in burger manufacture. This things go largely under our food radar. All week I've been writing and researching this topic with the discovery  that horse meat could in fact be endemic in the European food chain.

Not only that but horsemeat itself may not be safe to eat. Irish farmers have to jump through hoops to ensure the traceability of their cattle, but the horse trade is subject to little or no regulation and forged documents and passports are common, especially with horses coming from North America and killed in Canadian or Mexican slaughter plants. In Ireland horses are stolen and shipped live as far as Italy where they go into the European food chain, some having been treated with bute or other drugs which are banned substances. 

Ingredient suppliers who may be buying this meat are not subject to the same safeguards as farmers, especially when it comes to low-grade animal protein. That's how horse DNA ended up in Irish burgers. What else it is an ingredient of we will have to wait and see. 

Today I published an analysis of this mess in The Irish Times. You can read it at the link below. In the meantime remember buy local where you can, keep your supply chain short and keep away from processed food. My feeling is that the FSAI's tests on burger meat is only the beginning and authorities must investigate the horsemeat and ingredient trade at large to get to the bottom of what could potentially be an enormous case of food fraud. 

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2013/0119/1224329033672.html

Women's Christmas, cakes and the Jeremy Kyle show

New Years Eve

I was glad to read in Psychology Today that a quarter of people fail in their new year resolutions in the first week. Phew, at least I'm not on my own.

In fact, that's a complete lie. I didn't make any.

You could say this arises from fear of failure but it's probably more a healthy case of can't be bothered. New year resolutions are great, and setting ludicrous goals even better, but for the month that's in it, January doesn't signify anything too dramatic for me other than using up half a tonne of frozen turkey, baking a Galette des Rois, and getting back on top of work deadlines..

I cheated at my Galette this year. Traditionally it's a cake for the feast of the Epiphany which is the 6th January. This date is also known as Little Christmas or Women's Christmas, which is just as well as I had two girls nights out in a row - one with old schoolfriends and the second with women from my village who have a traditional meet up in the pub for Nollaig na mBan. We had wine, laughs, gossip and in a rural area like ours a night like this forms important bonds. I am lucky enough to have wonderful neighbours on whom I can call at a moments notice for rescue and respite (and regularly do). A day before Christmas our thoroughbred broke out of his stable and ran wild down a public road chased by a motorbike. 

*Ring Ring*  

"Hey,  can I drop the kids in? Having a bit of a problem here...."

Seriously, there's never a dull moment with thoroughbreds. They are the runway models of the horse world; beautiful, possibly anorexic (ours is) and with insanely tricky personalities. I am going to end up a crying wreak on the Jeremy Kyle show with all my kids taken into care if he doesn't start behaving himself soon.

Gallette des Rois

Back to cakes. In Catholic France the gorgeous Galette des Rois almond pastry celebrated the arrival of the three wise men. This was possibly because under the Julian calendar, Christmas Day fell on that day whereas under the Gregorian Calendar, (the present day system) it's the 25th.

As we're not great Christmas cake, pudding or mince-pie eaters in this house, the Galette is a Christmas staple, and devoured long before the Epiphany. It's a simple recipe, and if you are pressed for time as I usually am, you can use pre-made puff pastry and the result will still be pretty delicious. After you roll out the pastry it literally takes about five minutes to prepare. It's simple, mouthwatering and for me, the most perfect of French pastry treats.

May you all have a happy and healthy 2013; may cooking and food provide you with pleasure, comfort and fun in these strange and often unsettling times that we are living in. Basketcase will still be here; keeping you company in your travails; supplying scandal, food news, the wild, obscure and occasionally profane.

But in the meantime have a slice of Galette, and let me know how you get on. Happy Eating.

Galette des Rois

100 grams ground almonds

100 grams caster sugar

100 grams butter

one egg, lightly beaten

400 grams home made or ready made puff pastry

three drops almond essence

Mix the butter and caster sugar into a paste then add the ground almonds and the almond essence. Bind together with the beaten egg.

Roll out the pastry into two 10 inch rounds. Spread the almond paste on the first round, spreading it out to within an inch of the edge. Place the second round of pastry on top of the first, press the edges together, and score the top in semi-circular lines. Brush with a beaten egg and bake at 180 for 25 minutes.

You better be hungry x

Horses: addictive, expensive... may lead to impaired mental health

This time of year I'm particularly vulnerable to damaging, self destructive behaviour as today sees the start of the Cheltenham festival, which to horse folk is sort of like Christmas.

Besides good food, horses are one of my more ridiculous, hard to kick habits. After a few years on the sidelines with small children I've jumped back in head first, and with Cheltenham starting tomorrow, it feels like party time, particularly as I'll be

flying to the Caymans with my winnings by Friday. For those of you who ask "What the what is Cheltenham?" - it's an English race meeting in Gloucester where the best of national hunt horses (horses that run over fences and hurdles) in England, Ireland and France compete for the largest and final accolades of the season.

If you've been to Cheltenham you'll know it's an insane mix of Royalty, travellers, trilbys and high emotions. In 2007 I stood in the winners enclosure beside Princess Anne in a mass of bodies and high decibel cheering as Micheal O'Leary draped a tri-colour over a sweaty and steaming War of Attrition who had just won the Gold Cup. Later that day, Kate Middleton (then the world's best known civilian) tapped my husband on the shoulder with her race card in the weigh room and asked him for tips. He took one look at her mink hat and said "I'd imagine you've

better information then me love" and walked off, not knowing who she was until she appeared on the front of The Telegraph the next day. It's that kind of place.

You laugh, you cry (seriously) you feel knackered as hell after four days there but it's a life experience everyone Irish or who loves horses needs to experience at some point.

Last Sunday night I won four tickets to Cheltenham at a pre-racing event and gave them to a friend to go as he'd never been. I think the karma is coming back in a strange way as I just found out the horse I'm riding at the moment was

3rd to Sizing Europe (pictured right) and Big Zeb who are two of the favourites at this year's festival. Let's just say after 30 odd years riding I finally know the definition of "travelling". So goodwill brings its own rewards (are you listening Paddy Power?)

I did a piece on Saturday on our Irish lady riders competing at the festival if you want to check it out below. They are all fabulous women (pictured in the group shot above) and hard as nails. Both Katie Walsh and Katie Harrington were also accomplished event riders before riding in bumpers and then over fences. Lovely to see the girls competing on an equal footing in the sport and best of luck to all the Irish runners and riders this week. If you feel like a flutter, scan the papers and put on a few quid in the local bookies. The twitter feed for the meeting with all gossip and reaction is at #cheltenham and my highs and lows (will try to control the emotions) evident @campbellsuz

The Irish Times

10th March 2012

Suzanne Campbell

Never before has there been so much competition in the weighroom, only this time it’s female. Irish lady jockeys are increasingly taking home the silverware in National Hunt Racing, with two of our best known - Nina Carberry and Katie Walsh competing for wins at the Cheltenham festival next week. These two riders have altered the perception of women in the sport from being “female riders” to simply top jockeys in their own right. Last year Nina Carberry won the Irish Grand National becoming only the second woman rider to win the race. Katie Walsh, sister of jockey Ruby Walsh and daughter of the commentator Ted has also proved a leading rider over fences. She finished the 2011 Cheltenham festival with two winners, one of them fought out against the mount of Nina Carberry who is also Katie’s sister in law. These two riders, alongside Kate Harrington, Liz Lalor and Jane Mangan have been chosen by racing journalists as the Ladbrokes Grand National “Leading Ladies of Racing”. Kate Harrington is an accomplished three day event rider, and like Liz Lalor and Jane Mangan, has also had wins on the track. Expect more top prizes going into the hands of these jockeys, and some tight Cheltenham finishes fought out by our leading lady riders.

From starving on the side of the road to Ring 1 of the RDS. The journey of a rescue pony

HORSE SHOW SEASON: When Lulu the pony was found by the Irish Horse Welfare Trust on a housing estate, she was rake thin and lice infested. Next week, though, she will take her place in the distinguished surroundings of the RDS for the Dublin Horse Show. SUZANNE CAMPBELL on the work of the trust

NEXT WEEK LULU the pony will find herself groomed to perfection as she enters the ring at the Royal Dublin Society’s Horse Show. But it was on the edge of a housing estate in Finglas where the pony first came to attention, not by a judge wearing a bowler hat, but a volunteer from the Irish Horse Welfare Trust (IHWT).

Lulu’s early misfortune is typical of an increasing crisis in horse welfare across the country that has seen levels of abandoned animals soar. She was spotted by a member of the public, who reported seeing a pony at the side of the road who was tiny, starved and covered in lice. The IHWT took her in, rehabilitated her and found her a loving owner. In a pristine stable yard in Co Tipperary, Lulu now looks like a different pony.

“She was probably only a year old at that stage but had already been put into harness; she still has some marks from it,” says Katie Tobin, who has had horses all her life and became the pony’s guardian after she rang the IHWT and offered to rehome a horse.
“I had enough grazing to keep another animal so I told them I’d take one off their hands – whatever they wanted to give me. When the horsebox arrived, I thought there was no horse in it she was that small.”

In her stable, Lulu is quiet but self-possessed, eyeing us in quick glances as she munches through her breakfast, anxious to appraise her visitors without missing a scrap of her food. It was clear from the beginning that the pony wasn’t the usual offspring from the black and white horses kept around Dublin’s housing estates.

“She has a lot of quality blood in her, and with her pretty head she could be part Welsh pony,” says Tobin. She thinks the pony was probably stolen as a foal and fell into the wrong hands. “I’m just so glad she was picked up by the IHWT and then came to me.”

For the past 10 years, the IHWT has been taking in welfare cases and retraining horses coming from the racing industry, giving them a second chance as riding horses. Currently, it is inundated with rescue cases as economic woes have put many horse owners under pressure; starving and abandoned animals are being reported to it daily. In a new campaign, Welfare Aware, it hopes to raise more money from equestrian-related industries, as it relies hugely on public donations.
“It’s heartbreaking to see the work they do on so little money,” says Tobin. “Without the IHWT, the simple fact is that this pony and many others that they’ve rescued would be dead.”
Tobin saw Lulu’s potential early on and began showing her in hand (without a rider) when the mare was two. “Outside the show ring she was fine, but once inside she would be really badly behaved – rearing, sitting down, everything. I used to be so embarrassed I’d want to leave.”

Then she found a local girl, Shannon Sheridan, who could really ride her and handle her personality. “I’ve no children of my own. I had seen Shannon ride ponies on the circuit and I basically pestered her mother Michelle to death to try Shannon on Lulu. Once she sat up on her, the pair just clicked. She’s a fantastic rider, for a 12-year-old girl she can read a showing class better than many adults.”

Shannon Sheridan clearly knows every inch of the pony and slides off Lulu’s rug for us to have a closer look: “She can get a bit fat so we have to watch her food.” While Lulu has plenty of quality, she is also brimming over with personality. “She landed me in the hospital once when she took a fright at some white tape coming through the field gate,” laughs Tobin.

And what are their chances in Dublin? Tobin is confident. “If Lulu behaves and doesn’t get tense, she will do well.” The pony will take an hour to be plaited up and get her coat shining for the ring, but as Tobin points out, the real work is sorting out her boundless energy before she goes in front of judges. “We work her in sometimes for a couple of hours before her class, she has bottomless energy levels.”

Does Shannon Sheridan think the pony might be a challenging ride in the big surroundings of the RDS? She gives a nervous laugh: “Yeah.”

For Tobin, the hard work and expense in showing the pony and bringing her to the top level of competition has more than paid off. “I have another pony in Dublin the same week, but you know it’s Lulu that I’m really excited about. It was my dream that she would get there, and it’s a real success story for the IHWT. It proves all animals deserve a second chance.”


A nose for bags
LOUISE O’LEARY, the designer behind Louloubelle bags, was so taken with the work done by the Irish Horse Welfare Trust that she is launching a bag in aid of the charity. “I always had rescue cats and dogs from the pound and then I took in a rescue mare. She was found by the side of the road in north Co Dublin. The vet said she mightn’t last 48 hours.” O’Leary named the mare Hazel and watched her slowly improve in health. “For the first few weeks she had her head buried in the grass just eating, then one day she came trotting over to the fence to greet me.”

Since then, O’Leary has found her “an absolute joy. It’s amazing an animal that was mistreated and left to starve can be so grateful for what she has. So I thought, what can I do to help – I can’t take in more horses but I can design, so I decided to launch a bag named Hazel [pictured below] to raise money for the trust.” One of Louise’s aims at Louloubelle bags is to make handcrafted products from ethically sourced leather. A third of the world’s leather comes from China, where animal-welfare practices have received a lot of criticism, and cats and dogs are killed for their fur. For O’Leary, this was an important issue. “I think there is a lack of awareness about where leather comes from; if people knew more about it they might make different decisions.”

When she began her business, sourcing leather that is a by-product of the food industry was a difficult task. “I searched for a long time in Italy for a factory that would produce to high ethical standards. Even Carlo who runs the factory says he doesn’t want to make money off the back of animal abuse. I get offered leather all the time that is cheaper than the stuff I buy, but I suspect it’s coming from China.” For O’Leary, the bag is a way of giving back for the pleasure she has had from giving an unwanted horse a second chance. “The work the IHWT does is unbelievable, they badly need donations and people to adopt their animals if you have a suitable home for one.” The bag is available from ihwt.ie for a special price of €250 (normal RRP is €500). All proceeds will go to charity and the bag will be on view at the IHWT’s stand during the Dublin Horse Show.

Lulu and Shannon Sheridan will be in the Show Hunter Pony class at 9am in Ring One on Sunday, August 8th, during Horse Show Week at the RDS Dublin Horse Show