A recent development in the great horsemeat scandal of 2012 (boy has that story got legs!), is that in spite of the public uproar at the mere thought that horse might have made it into their frozen lasagnes, Princess Anne suggested we create a market for horsemeat for the sake of animal welfare.

The press reported this serious suggestion with either a whiff of humour or a sense of how dare someone, even a royal, suggest such a thing. Horsemeat posed no actual threat to public health, in fact it might have been quite the opposite. Horsemeat is quite a lean and “healthy” meat. It seems that instead of taking something which is an interesting proposition and allowing serious debate, the press reported what they thought people wanted to hear…especially those people who thought it would be awful to take a bite out of Neddy.

Food is an easy target and a headline makers dream

Another story over the last couple of weeks has been that chips (French fries) and other deep fried food contains one of the same carcinogenic substances which is found in…wait for it…cigarette smoke! Sounds bad right? Yes it does and it got a lot of copy all over the place. Strangely though it got much, much more press than a very recent report from WHO (the World Health Organisation) that in fact the air we breath is carcinogenic due to the level of pollutants which float around our lovely planet.

So food got the bad press? Again is this because people want to hear this story and feel good by cutting down on their favourite fried food and the healthy lifestyle lobby get to say “I told you so”? Probably, because that’s better than “don’t breath in…it might kill you”.

It would appear food stories get too much attention and mostly for the wrong reasons.

Of course some foods are going to be bad for you. We have known for years that deep fried food is simply not a healthy option. Horsemeat won’t kill you if you accidently (or deliberately) eat it. So is most food news simply no news?

Who knows, so I’m going to go and think about it over a horse steak and chips.

What’s the most wacky food story you have heard? Do you think the press are too keen to demonise food?

Michael Robinson

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The Food Curator

The Food Curator (AKA Michael Robinson) is an aficionado of all things food and bon viveur based in London. A passion for cooking and dining has driven him to put fingers to keyboard to bring you his thoughts on the world of food. When not writing, eating or cooking he has a love of American muscle cars. Pop on over to my Facebook page and let's start a Facebook food revolution together: http://tinyurl.com/thefoodcurator

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