Plant at centre of inquiry into horse meat find

Vets from the Department of Agriculture are taking samples and interviewing management from one of the country’s biggest processing plants to establish how horse meat ended up in beef burgers.

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney said the discovery of horse meat in beef products sold across five supermarket chains was “not helpful” for the reputation of Irish meat, which is exported to 165 countries.

Dunnes Stores, Aldi, Lidl, and Iceland were all found to have traces of horse DNA in their frozen burgers, while Tesco’s Everyday Value beef burgers were found to be made of 29% horse meat.