It's been nearly two years since the horse meat scandal of 2013 shocked many consumers, but why did UK consumers recoil at the discovery of horse meat? Yes it was undeclared and consumers have the right to know what their food should contain, but why isn’t horse on our supermarket shelves? I love horses and have ridden all of my life and wouldn't go out of my way to eat horse meat. However, here is a short analysis that will look into the under investigated topic of hippophagy in the UK and why horse consumption is a taboo amongst the British culture.
Beef is one of the most consumed forms of meat, but with an ever increasing population, demand for meat increases too. Cows digest food by enteric fermentation, emitting more methane into the atmosphere than any other mammal. Pigs and chickens do not digest the same way and neither do horses, making hippophagy more environmentally friendly. Horse is also sweeter and leaner making it more nutritionally beneficial than beef.
Part of the revulsion toward horse consumption stems from the British view of horses seen as pets. Dr Roger Mugford, Animal Psychologist at the Animal Behaviour Centre, says “we put extra qualities and values on animals seen as pets” (BBC, 2013).
History also reinforces the taboo as horses played a vital role in warfare so are therefore sentimentally depicted. Blockbuster ‘War Horse’ and Channel 4’s recent documentary ‘The Real War Horse’ showed viewers how horses were responsible in helping win World War 1 (BBC, 2013).
The RSPCA add in the BBC report that the slaughter of horses is an emotive topic. People in the UK prefer to see them as field companions than an accompaniment to vegetables at dinner (BBC, 2013).
Yet these theories also apply to France who holds no qualms of serving up the equine species. So perhaps it is a chauvinistic approach of asserting national identity which is so deeply embedded that it has become a culinary norm; the British eat beef and the French eat horse.
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