Frozen
beefburgers on sale in Aldi, Iceland, Lidl and Tesco found to contain traces of
horsemeat, says food safety watchdog
Horse DNA has been discovered in frozen beefburgers sold in Aldi, Iceland, Lidl and Tesco, according to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. Photograph: Getty Images |
Four major
supermarket chains operating in Britain are withdrawing a number of beef products
after horse DNA was found in frozen burgers sold in the UK and Ireland by Aldi,
Iceland, Lidl and Tesco.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), which made the discovery, said the burgers
were produced by two processing plants in Ireland, Liffey Meats and Silvercrest
Foods, and Dalepak Hambleton in the UK.
In nine of
the 10 burger samples from the four retailers, and from the Irish chain Dunnes
Stores, horse DNA was found at very low levels. However, in one sample, from
Tesco, the level of positive DNA indicated horsemeat accounted for 29% relative
to the beef content.
The FSAI
said the retailers have agreed to remove all implicated batches from sale.
Professor
Alan Reilly, chief executive of the FSAI, said while the findings posed no risk
to health they did raise concerns. "The products we have identified as
containing horse DNA and/or pig DNA do not pose any food safety risk and
consumers should not be worried," he added. "Consumers who have
purchased any of the implicated products can return them to their retailer.
"While
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 horsemeat in their
production process."
He said it
was not part of Irish culture to eat horsemeat: "We do not expect to find
it in a burger; likewise, for some religious groups or people who abstain from
eating pig meat, the presence of traces of pig DNA is unacceptable."
A
spokeswoman for Tesco said the grocer was working with the authorities in
Ireland and the UK, and with the suppliers concerned, to ensure that type of
contamination did not happen again.
"We
will not take any products from this site until the conclusion and satisfactory
resolution of an investigation," she added. "The safety and quality
of our food is of the highest importance to Tesco. We will not tolerate any
compromise in the quality of the food we sell. The presence of illegal meat in
our products is extremely serious."
Iceland
said it had noted "with concern" the statement issued by the FSAI and
had withdrawn from sale the two Iceland brand quarter-pounder burger lines
implicated in the study, pending further investigation.
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