Page 17 - Charlie Bigham CS

THE HORSE MEAT SCANDAL

Bighams’ world faced a threat in 2013 when the European Horse Meat
Scandal broke on January 15 2013 when ready meals were found to
contain mystery meats not stated on the label.

Horse meat was found in frozen lasagne and beef burgers sold by
some major supermarkets.

"Wherever there is money to be made -- and the sums involved in food
fraud are in the billions -- criminals will find a way."
Chris Elliot: Professor of Food Safety at Queen's
University, Belfast

On the evening on 15 January, the Republic's Food Safety Authority of
Ireland (FSAI) announced the results of DNA tests it carried out on a
number of beef products on sale in a number of supermarkets.

The FSAI tested 27 beef burgers and of that sample, 37% tested
positive for traces of horse DNA, while 85% were found to contain
traces of pig DNA. The amounts detected were very small, except for
one beef burger from Tesco, was found to contain 29% horsemeat.

The Irish food inspectors announcement in mid-January that they had
found horsemeat in frozen beefburgers made by firms in the Irish
Republic and the UK, and sold by a number of UK supermarket chains,
including Tesco, Iceland, Aldi and Lidl was the tip of the iceberg.

Initially the problem appeared to be confined to two processing
factories in the Republic of Ireland and one in Yorkshire. But this soon
changed as the scandal spread to 13 other European countries, and
European authorities decided to find an EU-wide solution. They

initiated meat testing of about 4,000 horse meat samples for the
veterinary drug.