A butcher at Leeds’s Kirkgate Market says the Tesco horse meat scandal should act as a wake-up call to shoppers to support their local traders.
And Michael Saynor, who has been part of Malcolm Michael’s butchers for more than 20 years, hopes the revelation this week that quantities of horse meat were found in the supermarket giant’s beef burgers will push shoppers back to the market.
Speaking to the YEP in between chatting to customers at the shop yesterday, Michael said: “If what happened at Tesco happened here, I think it would shut us down. But if you buy meat from your local butcher, we’re the only ones who are going to have handled it and you know exactly what you’re getting. Everyone who comes in here knows us too.”
Earlier this week it was revealed that horse meat had been discovered in beefburgers sold by the supermarkets Tesco and Iceland.
Investigators said that in Tesco’s Everyday Value burgers, horse meat accounted for almost one third of the meat content.
The supermarket has since issued a full apology, placing full-page adverts in national newspapers.
Bosses said the supermarket and its supplier had let customers down and promised to find out what had happened.
Michael said he hoped that more people would now come to the market and support their local traders following the news.
He said: “We get a lot of people in Leeds saying how they want the market to do well and stay open. But people need to use it. It’s like the old saying goes, if you don’t use it, you lose it. People have got to start coming away from the supermarkets and back to the markets if they want us here.”
And the butcher cited the example of Leeds’ students as the ones taking the most advantage of the market.
He said: “We get a lot of students coming to the market- and if students can afford to do it, then families and other people can as well.”
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