So... if any of you visit the BBC news website regularly, you may already be familiar with the article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7349320.stm discussing the new EU row in Brussels that may affect British food. Basically, if you are of a French persuasion and have a taste for the raw, minced beef dish, steak tartare, then your health and welfare is likely to be potentially responsible for a possible detrimental change for the way us real foodies like to have our meat prepared.

Essentially, what the EU are saying, is that to protect people who eat steak tartare from Salmonella and other food poinsoning micro organisms, beef used to make mince will only be hung for a maximum of 6 days, as opposed to up to four weeks - the usual maximum time for hanging beef. Unfortunately, it isn't possible to seperate the mince from the more expensive cuts such as fillet and rib roasts prior to hanging, so basically the whole carcass can only be hung for 6 days. As you are probably aware, the longer beef in hung for (usually in a refridgerated room these days)the more tender and tasty it becomes. This is a natural process caused by enzymes in the meat begining to break down the tougher tissues. In the UK, we love our meat well hung, although we have to pay a little more for it to account for the extended time that it spends in limbo between being slaughtered and ending up on our plate.

The reasons that steak tartare is more at risk from contamination by food poisoning bugs are two fold. Firstly, because it is eaten raw, no bugs are killed by the cooking process. Secondly, as the meat is minced, any bugs sitting on the outside are ground up and mixed throughout the meat so they can't be removed or destroyed. Poorly cooked sausages and burgers can be dangerous for the same reason. This is a pretty dangerous combination and it is easy to see how it can make people ill. Normal steak, even if only seared on the outside is safer because any bugs sitting on the surface can be destroyed by cooking and haven't had a chance to penetrate into the meat.

It frustrates me that yet again, the eating peculiarities of one nation will potentially affect an entire continent or at least the member states of the EU. I hope that those lobbying on behalf of UK food producers manage to win this round of legislative by-play.
Surely, if the french want to eat raw mince, it's up to them to ensure that it's prepared safely so that the rest of us can enjoy properly prepares meat in comfort. We as a nation are slowly getting better at defending the quality of our animals before slaughter, I hope that we can also defend the quality and traditions of our meat cooked, like only the British know how!