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Tag: horse meat found in burgers

  • Horse Meat in School Meals Found in the U.K.

    The U.K.‘s Food Standards Agency (FSA) today revealed that horse meat was found during the DNA testing of beef products. The beef products tested would have been found in school and restaurant meals.

    The DNA testing, so far, covers 2,501 samples. Of these, 29 of the samples were found to be positive for presence of horse DNA at or above the level of 1%.

    “Since this incident began on 16 January, businesses have been carrying out a large number of tests,” said Catherine Brown, FSA Chief Executive. “We said that industry should share those results with us, and the public, and we asked for the first results to be with us today. The results so far date from when businesses began their testing four weeks ago. They include results which were received by companies up to around 10am this morning.”

    Companies were asked to test composite beef products, such as burgers. The FSA report shows that horse meat was found in beef burgers, beef lasagne, and spaghetti bolognese.

    Though those 29 positive samples make up less than 2% of all the samples tested, that’s still too much for the FSA.

    “We’ve asked industry to test for horse DNA down to a level of 1%,” said Brown. “There are two reasons for this. First, that’s a pragmatic level above which we think any contamination would be due to either gross incompetence or deliberate fraud; it’s not going to be accidental. Second, some laboratories can only test accurately down to a level of 1%.

    “But that does not mean that we’re not concerned with, or that we accept, levels below 1%. In terms of faith groups, there remains a significant issue about trace levels of other species below 1%. So we have a separate programme of work under way with Defra to look at the issues around that, too.”

    The horse meat scandal in the U.K. began in January, when horse meat was found in beef products sold in Ireland.

    Though the cases were not explicitly linked to the horse meat scandal, police this week have arrested several individuals from the Peter Boddy Slaughterhouse in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. Police have also conducted related raids in Hull and Tottenham, where they collected “computers and documentary evidence”, as well as “meat samples.”

  • Horsemeat Found In Burgers Prompts Investigation

    Studies done on beef products sold in Ireland have shown that many of the most popular store-bought brands test positive for horse DNA.

    Although authorities believe there’s no health risk involved, they say the inclusion of unfamiliar DNA does make it harder to trace what ingredients have entered the food chain to produce the final product. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland ran the tests, which were meant to locate pig and horse products in the meat, and found that 10 out of the 27 “beef” products they chose tested positive for horse DNA. A whopping 23 of the 27 contained pig DNA. While most of the levels were low, one Tesco product which was tested was found to contain 29% horse meat.

    “Whilst there is a plausible explanation for the presence of pig DNA in these products due to the fact that meat from different animals is processed in the same meat plants, there is no clear explanation at this time for the presence of horse DNA in products emanating from meat plants that do not use horse meat in their production process,” Alan Reilly of the FSAI said.

    An investigation has been launched to determine where the horse meat originated from and how it ended up in so many different types of food.

    So far, the affected meat has come from Tesco, Dunnes Stores, Lidl, Aldi and Iceland stores in Ireland.