Fast food firm finds some beef contains more than 10% equine DNA as Birds Eye confirms ready meals were contaminated
Taco Bell, the US-based fast food company, has withdrawn its taco beef products from sale in British and Spanish outlets after finding some beef contained more than 10% horse DNA. The move came as Birds Eye confirmed that two ready meals it removed from supermarket shelves as a precaution last week have proved to have "low levels" of horse DNA.
Taco Bell has three UK outlets, in Manchester's Arndale centre, and the Lakeside shopping centre and Basildon in Essex. It has nine outlets in Spain.
A spokesperson for the company said its testing had revealed ingredients from one as yet unnamed supplier in Europe had tested positive for horsemeat. "We immediately withdrew it from sale, and discontinued purchase of that meat and contacted the FSA [Food Standards Authority] with this information. We apologise to our customers and take this matter very seriously as food quality is our highest priority."
Birds Eye withdrew its Traditional Spaghetti Bolognese 340g, Shepherd's Pie 400g and Beef Lasagne 400g lines last week because they were made by the Belgian company, Frigilunch, that was responsible for the chili con carne made for the Belgian market that was found to have equine DNA. Further tests on the bolognese and lasagne have found they also had horse DNA.
The company said no other products had tested positive, nor did they share the same supply chains as Frigilunch.
"Going forward we are introducing a new ongoing DNA testing programme that will ensure no minced beef meat product can leave our facilities without first having been cleared by DNA testing.
"Since the first discovery of horsemeat in some beef products produced by a number of manufacturers and retailers, we have been DNA-testing all our own beef products."
The catering supplier Brakes, which previously reported a horse-adulterated frozen beefburger found in a Scottish school kitchen, a spicy minced beef skewer, and a lasagne manufactured for Whitbread, has now revealed that the products all came from different suppliers. It has so far named only one of those, Pinnacle Foods, and says investigations are continuing.
The latest details of horsemeat adulteration came as the FSA ended its immediate programme of industry tests, which have seen the food industry conduct 5,430 tests on their products to identify those that had 1% or more of horse DNA.
So far 17 products have been found to have what the FSA regards as "gross contamination", which it regards as the result either of "gross negligence or deliberate substitution of one meat for another".
The presence of horsemeat has also been reported outside the testing programme at the Burger Manufacturing Company in Wales and the catering wholesaler Makro.
From now on, industry test results that reveal more than 1% contamination will be placed on the the FSA's website immediately, but summaries of all products tested will only be reported quarterly. Next week will see the publication of the first data from the agency's own sampling programme being carried out by local authority officers. It is hoped this programme will help give some further idea of the scale of beef contamination.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
