The revelation that one-third of curry houses north of the Border are guilty of substituting cheap beef for lamb comes as no surprise ("Restaurants serving up cheaper meat in curries", The Herald, March 11).

Information from a leaked document produced by the Food Standards Agency has shown that low quality beef is being passed off as lamb in more than 30% of all curries. What is not revealed is how much mutton is also being passed off as lamb. It is unlikely DNA testing will be able to differentiate lamb and mutton.

I would suspect this practice has been going on for some considerable time as it is well known that prime lamb commands a premium price and could not justify its inclusion in many ethnic dishes. This will be borne out by wholesale butchers who supply ethnic restaurants, where most of the product purchased will be mutton/cast ewe. This product when cooked and added to curry will be virtually indistinguishable from lamb.

Sir Hugh Pennington, an eminent bacteriologist and not a veterinarian, has correctly stated the fraudulent substitution should not pose any risk to the consumer provided it has been obtained from a reputable source and properly cooked. The more we delve into the labelling and production of meat and meat-based products, the more aware society has become of the extent of fraud that has taken place. This is in all probability not a recent phenomenon and has been going on for years.

I do not wish to sound too pessimistic but I do not think we have heard that last of the issues surrounding food fraud.

DD Wardrope,

Knowefield,

5 Douglas Terrace,

Lockerbie.

We learn that some of the lamb curries we have been eating were in fact made up of cheap beef. This has been described as fraud on a large scale.

The public has been massively deceived by the horsemeat scandal.

Now we learn we cannot rely on certain major hospitals arranging to decontaminate surgical equipment to the proper standards ("Operations cancelled in row over surgery safety", The Herald, March 12). That must be really re-assuring to those awaiting the call to go into hospital for a necessary operation.

Meanwhile, we can no longer rest easy that the present range of antibiotics is capable of dealing effectively with drug-resistant bugs. This problem has been described as a time bomb requiring urgent attention ("Drug failure threat as bad as terror", The Herald, March 11).

Marriage is about to be fundamentally re-defined in this country in a way which many find incomprehensible.

One cannot be fully confident, in the face of conflicting legal advice, that the position of churches against such a change will be adequately protected.

Some banks have proved they could not be relied upon to exercise prudence and basic financial skills and, as a result, had to be bailed out by the hard-pressed taxpayer. That did not prevent many of those responsible for bringing about such a situation leaving with unjustified and extravagant pay-offs.

There are many who live by the adage "in God we trust", which in the US is taken to the extent of appearing on their bank notes and on the walls of their court houses. Even this has been called into question by Pope Benedict XVI in his valedictory address when, before standing down as Pope, he reflected upon the possibility that at times the Lord may have fallen asleep.

More and more I, admittedly of a fairly mature age and given to occasional fits of nostalgia, am driven to the conclusion that, as Lionel Bart wrote and Max Bygraves sang: "Fings ain't what they used to be."

Ian W Thomson,

38 Kirkintilloch Road, Lenzie.