So the “Ass Foods” obsession finally makes sense.

Right about now you should be regretting buying that “venison mince” at 50 bucks a kilo last week. It really was too good to be true.

Stellenbosch University’s meat scientists have been busy little bodies, conducting a thorough study of commercially-available meat products in the wake of an international scandal around the presence of delicious horse meat in European meat products not labelled “horse meat”.

Of course, not being content to let the Europeans get all the credit when it comes to gross maladministration of controls and standards, South Africa has stepped up to the plate, and one-upped every one by mincing donkeys – adorable, fluffy donkeys – into meat products not labelled “donkey”.

But that’s not all! The study also found that “anything from soya, donkey, goat and water buffalo were to be found in up to 68% of the 139 minced meats, burger patties, deli meats, sausages and dried meats that were tested. In other cases, even undeclared plant matter was detected.”

Mmm, undeclared water buffalo.

Of the 139 samples tested, 95 (68%) contained species which were not declared on the product labelling. The scapegoats in general were sausages, burger patties and deli meats.

The products tested were collected from retail outlets and butcheries.

“Clearly, our consumers cannot generally accepted that the meat products they buy are correctly labelled,” says Dr. Cawthorn, who believes that the entire local meat industry needs to take more responsibility in complying with relevant regulations.

Thanks for that, Doctor. We believe that, too.

The study was published in the international Food Control journal, and was done by Dr Donna-Maree Cawthorn and Prof. Louw Hoffman of the Stellenbosch University Department of Animal Sciences, in conjunction with Harris Steinman of the Food & Allergy Consulting & Testing Services (F.A.C.T.S) in Milnerton.

[Source : Stellenbosch University]