Irish Food Safety Authority Finds Horse, Pork DNA in Beef Products
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has published the results of an investigation “examining the authenticity of a number of beef burger, beef meal and salami products available from retail outlets in Ireland.” According to a January 15, 2013, FSAI press release, the agency’s study revealed “the presence of horse DNA in some beef burger products,” raising concerns about “the traceability of meat ingredients and products entering the food chain.”
After testing for horse and pig DNA in 27 beef burger products, investigators
evidently reported that 10 (37 percent) of the samples contained horse
DNA and 23 (85 percent) contained pig DNA. The study also found that all 19
salami samples and 21 of 31 beef meal products contained pig DNA, though
none of these items contained horse DNA. In addition, notes FSAI, “[t]races of
horse DNA were also detected in batches of raw ingredients, including some
imported from The Netherlands and Spain.”
FSAI has apparently linked the beef burger products containing horse DNA to
two processing plants in Ireland and one in the United Kingdom. The retailers
have agreed to remove the implicated batches from the market, with one
deciding to recall all of its products and replace them with new ones. “In nine
of the ten beef burger samples from these retailers, horse DNA was found at
very low levels,” concludes FSAI. “However, in one sample from Tesco, the level
of horse DNA indicated that horsemeat accounted for approximately 29%
relative to the beef content.”
“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 horsemeat in their production process,” said FSAI Chief Executive Alan
Reilly. “In Ireland, it is not in our culture to eat horsemeat and therefore, 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. We are working with the meat processing plants and the
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and the Marine to find out how horse
DNA could have found its way into these products.”
