Rose Prince - The Savvy Shopper

Burgers can contain a mixture of British and imported meat. In 2005, inspectors from Quality Meat Scotland (a trade organisation that promotes Scottish meat—it must be said) found traces of low-grade beef in burger samples taken from retailers. They also DNA-tested samples on sale in Scotland, revealing that all contained Zebu genetics—meaning the beef is from Bos Indicus cattle, which are specially bred for tropical climates but whose meat has a low eating quality.

UK-reared livestock can be given GM feed and this does not need to be declared on the label. The manufacturers argue that the GM feed travels through the body of the animal and no genetic material is absorbed. The environmental sector remains very uncomfortable with this.

All burgers, especially economy burgers (see above) can be bulked out with cereal. There would be nothing wrong with adding a pure cereal—in the Middle East, lamb patties are made more delicious with the addition of cracked bulgar wheat—but the cereal bulk in most burgers is either tasteless rusk or breadcrumbs, and both contain additives. These include yeast extract (very popular among burger makers) as a flavouring, wheat protein, wheat flour, pea fibre, onion powder, soya protein isolate, fat (usually beef), plus sodium metabisulphite (E223), sodium sulphite (E221), neither of which is recommended for children, and the stabiliser sodium phosphate (E339) (which can be used as a laxative). Burgers may also contain hydrolised vegetable protein (HVP), a plant-based flavouring (usually soya) that has been chemically altered to imitate the flavour of meat. HVP has been found to contain the carcinogen chloropropanol, sometimes called 3MCPD.

Waitrosestocks both organic and conventional burgers, both made using forequarter cuts of meat sourced from the UK. The beef content of each product varies from 92 to 99 per cent. The cattle that supply the beef are fed a GM-free diet.

Tesco’sbeef burgers are 82 per cent beef and made from forequarter trim cuts from beef sourced from the UK and the Republic of Ireland. It did not indicate if the cattle are fed GM material. Tesco does not sell an organic range.

Marks & Spencersells burgers made from forequarter beef sourced from Scotland, England and Northern Ireland. Their burgers are 94 per cent beef. The meat comes from suckler herds naturally reared on their mothers for six months, then fed on a forage-based diet.

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