Moral Panic: Horse Meat Scandal

Irish food inspectors announced in mid-January that they had found horse meat in frozen beefburgers made by firms in the Irish Republic and the UK, and sold by a number of supermarket chains across the UK including, Tesco, Iceland, Aldi and Lidl.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2279385/The-unpalatable-truth-The-horsemeat-scandal-brutal-warning-Britain-MUST-change-ways.html

The Horse meat scandal was regarded as a moral panic (Stan Cohen 1973). The media exaggerated the danger of consuming horse meat, with the risk of dangerous substances entering the human food chain through unregulated meat. However, the only drug to be identified was the veterinary drug, 'bute' which was found in less than 4% of horse meat samples.

When looking at articles encompassing the subject of the horse meat scandal, newspaper headlines are seen to be generally bias.  The media usually exaggerate the extent of news headlines in order to sell, or gain the publics attention.


When looking at the horse meat scandal, from the Food Standards Agency, a different message is put across to the audience however, this is still seen to be a bias interpretation of the scandal. As seen in many media sources, the newsreporter or business representer are usually white, middle-aged men. This presents a trustworthy and professional image to the audience, suggesting that the information being presented is an accurate source. The FSA interviewer states that they are 'not advising anyone to stop eating ready meals or products indeed, with beef in them'. This presents a highly contrasted view from the Daily Mail whom, said there was a 'risk of dangerous substances entering the human food chain'. This shows how the media are biased, depending on their side of the news headlines. Within the interview it is further claimed that 'we have two products that we have identified as being contaiminated'. Again, this information being projected to the audience could be inaccurate, enabling supermarkets to continue making sales of these 'contaminated' products. This opposes information from the BBC, confirming that 17 products had been found to be contaminated.