Farmers condemn Poland link to horsemeat scandal
Farmers have hit out after horsemeat found in frozen beefburgers sold in major UK supermarkets, including Tesco, was found to have been imported from Poland.
Tests confirmed that meat supplied to ABP Food Group’s Silvercrest food processing plant in Ireland and sold to Tesco, Aldi, Lidl and Iceland contained as much as 20% horse DNA, the Irish Agriculture Ministry said.
Irish agriculture minister Simon Coveney said the latest findings were a “firm conclusion” that horsemeat introduced into burgers at the Silvercrest factory was supplied from Poland.
It was a “major breakthrough” in the joint investigation by his department and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) into the source of horse DNA in burgers, he added.
During the weekend, farmers told of their fury at the latest revelations in the horsemeat scandal on Twitter.
Malcom Parr, a north-east Lincolnshire farmer and agricultural contractor, tweeted: “So the horsemeat in burgers came from Poland. Why the hell are we importing it anyway, oh I forgot, money and greed from processors/retail.”
Philip Vincent, of Norfolk beef producers Pulham Herefords, asked: “Why can’t we make beefburgers in the UK?”
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, NFU president Peter Kendall said retailers could not continue a “race to the bottom” for cheap food without expecting corners to be cut.
He said British farmers and processors were producing products of an “incredibly high standard”, adding he would like to see a “long-term commitment to the quality instead of scouring the world for the cheapest products”.
While earlier results had shown trace levels of horse DNA in imported raw materials found in burgers, Mr Coveney said “significant quantities” of horse DNA had been uncovered in the latest tests on burgers traced back to the factory in Poland.
Under the latest investigation, more than 140 samples of primary products and ingredients were tested for horse DNA.
Three burgers and one imported ingredient tested positive for significant levels of horse DNA – up to 20% of horsemeat relative to beef content.
“This finding leads to a firm conclusion that the raw material in question was the source of equine DNA introduced into burgers manufactured at Silvercrest,” the Irish agriculture ministry said in a statement.
However, the current findings of the official investigation did not show any evidence that Silvercrest deliberately used horsemeat in their production process, Mr Coveney said.
The authorities in Poland have been informed of the findings of the investigation, he added.
Mr Coveney said tests on samples taken from Irish food ingredients were negative and he was “pleased that the integrity of Irish food production was maintained”.
Production at the Silvercrest factory in County Monaghan stopped a week ago after an FSAI survey revealed as much as 29% horsemeat was found in some Tesco Everyday Value burgers which were made with meat supplied by the factory. Traces of horsemeat were also found in burgers sold at Aldi, Lidl and Iceland.
Burger King said on Thursday (24 January) that it had stopped using beef supplied by Silvercrest for its burgers.
It had previously been believed the source of the horsemeat was either from Spain or the Netherlands.
More than 10m frozen burgers have been removed from supermarket shelves since the horsemeat scandal broke a fortnight ago. But food safety experts in the UK and Ireland have stressed that the burgers pose no threat to consumer health.