It is not a massive shock that processed foods at the very bottom end of the market should be the ones where inexplicably horsemeat has been discovered. The explanations that spring to mind are that somewhere in the chain there was a genuine error; or that in that same chain someone did it deliberately. It is hard to imagine circumstances in which 29 per cent of a burger could be horsemeat by accidental contamination, but you never know.
Behind that, however, is the fact that the continual downward pressure on suppliers by supermarkets is likely to end in some sort of error: if your prices are shaved to the bone you cannot afford the very best monitoring systems, best people, most reliable suppliers of your own raw materials, the numbers on duty you would want, etc. So the supermarket buyer filling the trolley with the very cheapest stuff is not - generally - getting the best and purest - big shock.
With burgers, the product that has caused the furore, it is pretty easy to make your own for not very much, and to enjoy the process rather than the processed. Buy some mince from a reliable supplier; use some stale bread to make breadcrumbs; chop an onion finely; mix together with an egg for binding and seasoning to taste, then form the burgers in your floured hands and grill or fry them.
I started this post saying it was economical buying rubbish, but that is not really true. As Elizabeth David once wrote, a bad meal is expensive at any price.
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