A Berkhamsted butchers has emphatically declared that it will not sell you horse meat.
A sign up outside of its Gravel Path premises, saying: “Sorry!! No horse meat sold here.” Another sign at the site says: “100% beef burgers. Made fresh here.”
The notices went up after it was revealed last month that big-name stores like Tesco, Aldi, Lidl and Iceland had been unknowingly selling horse meat in their beef burgers because of supplier problems.
It has since been revealed that the horse meat – found in beef in Britain and France – may have come from a Romanian abattoir.
But Eastwoods only stocks British meat that has been organically reared.
Joe Collier, who ran the shop for more than 20 years before his recent retirement, said in lots of countries it’s normal to eat horse meat.
But he said: “It is scandalous, but unfortunately with the supermarkets pressing everybody to lower prices – they push, push, push, push, push – and at the end of the day people start cutting corners.
“It’s disgraceful that they are not labelling it as horse. It’s just a cop out to say, ‘We did not know.’ You have got to know. That’s what due diligence is about.”
The best way to avoid horse meat is to buy from a butcher that is certified with the Q Guild, he said.
The butcher will be able to explain exactly where each of the products on sale there come from.