In Europe, consumers are scandalized over the possibility that there could be a little horse meat in their IKEA meatballs. In China, consumers are scandalized that there might not be horse meat in their IKEA meatballs — because those meatballs are made in China, which probably means they’ve got much worse ingredients than a little bit of Black Beauty.
“I don’t really care about horse meat. The key point is that if it’s produced in China, it probably has rat meat,” said another [Weibo user] (link in Chinese). …
Still another was even more skeptical. “In Europe, profiteers just added a bit of horse meat to beef. But in China, you don’t even know if what you’re eating is actually meat,” he said (link in Chinese).
There you have it — a little bit of perspective on food regulation and safety. It’s not perfect — not by a long shot — in Europe or the U.S. But it could be way, way worse.
