QK Meats, a food company that knew about horsemeat contamination of its beef supply months before the Department of Agriculture discovered it, has admitted its actions in failing to notify the authorities “fell short”.

ABP chief executive Paul Finnerty — whose company supplied Tesco with beef burgers that turned out to be 29% horsemeat — has told Britain’s food committee it became clear on Jan 14 to 15 that the firm was “out of specification” because product was coming in from a combination of suppliers that were not approved.

The international search for the source of the horsemeat scandal has met with denials from one of the Polish suppliers involved but has become clearer closer to home.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has confirmed it was acting on concerns about the meat trader at the centre of the horse DNA scandal as early as October.

The Agriculture Minister said that significant resources are being deployed to investigate the horse meat controversy.

The Agriculture Minister says the horse meat controversy has had no discernible impact on markets outside of Ireland and the UK.

The Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney has said if there is fraudulent activity behind the horsemeat controversy, it will be fully exposed.

Irish livestock farmers are calling on the Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney and ABP Food Group to get to get to the bottom of the horsemeat scandal.

The origin of the horsemeat found in burgers produced in the Silvercrest plant may never be known, it has emerged.

The value of contracts lost by Larry Goodman’s Silvercrest beef plant has topped €50m after Burger King cancelled its deal with the Monaghan factory.

The ABP Food group has said it will not allow the "Slivercrest incident" at the centre of the recent horsemeat-in-burgers controversy to overshadow the whole business.

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney says his department has made a major breakthrough in tracing the source of the horse meat found in Irish beefburgers.

Preliminary test results on burgers manufactured at the Silvercrest facility in Co Monaghan have shown no evidence of horse DNA in raw materials sourced in Ireland.

The latest batch of beef burgers tested for horsemeat content show no presence of equine DNA, according to laboratory results released last night.

A second round of tests at a food processing firm embroiled in controversy over horse DNA in beef products have come back negative.

Major legal action is expected to be taken by the food production companies involved in the horse meat controversy.

Dutch food safety watchdogs have been drafted in as part of the investigation into the contamination of Irish beef burgers with horsemeat, in a move that places a Dutch company at the centre of the probe.

The Monaghan plant at the centre of the burger scandal has stopped all production after the Department of Agriculture confirmed new samples contained further traces of horse DNA.

It’s a question of traceability as Conor Ryan plots the route taken by the Food Safety Authority which led to it discovering horse and pig DNA in burgers