16/01/2013

Horsemeat Investigation To Include NI

The Food Standards Agency is including Northern Ireland in an investigation into the presence of horsemeat in supermarket burgers.

The move follows concerns from food safety officials in the UK and the Republic of Ireland that horse and pig DNA has been found in a number of burger products.

Yesterday, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) published the findings of a study that confirmed the presence of horse DNA in some beef burger products.

The FSAI analysed 27 beef burger products, ten of which tested positive for horse DNA and 23 of which tested positive for pig DNA.

The beef burger products which tested positive for horse DNA were produced by Liffey Meats and Silvercrest Foods in the Republic and Dalepak Hambleton in the UK, according to FSAI.

They were on sale in Tesco, Dunnes Stores, Lidl, Aldi and Iceland.

All the retailers involved so far have removed potentially affected products from their shelves.

The Food Standards Agency is understood to be trying to establish if any of the products ended up on Northern Ireland shelves.

Horsemeat accounted for approximately 29% of the meat content in one sample from Tesco, which had two frozen beefburger products sold in both the UK and Ireland contaminated with horse DNA., according to the BBC.

Prof. Alan Reilly, Chief Executive, FSAI, said: "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. Consumers who have purchased any of the implicated products can return them to their retailer."

He said there was "no clear explanation" for the presence of horse DNA in products emanating from meat plants that do not use horsemeat in their production process.

(IT)

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