Horsemeat scandal has one eater nervous

Nutrition and public policy expert Marion Nestle answers readers' questions in this column written exclusively for The Chronicle.

From this side of the Atlantic, the discovery of horsemeat in European hamburger and frozen dinners is the most riveting of scandals, replete with DNA technology, veterinary drugs, impossible-to-trace supply chains, smuggling, organized crime and outright fraud - not to mention the usual finger-pointing, cover-ups and protestations of shock that accompany food crises.

ComplicationsIn Europe, the supply chains are exceptionally complicated, involving countless companies in more than 21 countries that process, transport or sell horses or horsemeat.

The complexity makes it relatively easy to use horses to smuggle people or drugs, to label horsemeat as beef or to slip it into hamburger.

The ensuing crisis forced many food companies and retailers to recall vast numbers of products, some intended for school meals.

In our food studies programs at New York University, we discuss food as a marker of cultural identity.

Under pressure from horse lovers and animal welfare advocates, pet food companies replaced horsemeat with meat from other animals.

[...] if U.S. officials are testing hamburger for horsemeat DNA these days, they aren't saying.

Because horsemeat is not produced here, it won't be in butcher shops or supermarkets - unless the stores imported it or acquired contaminated products before the recalls, or unless the USDA assigns inspectors and allows horse slaughterhouses to reopen.