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.

The Tesco burgers came from the Silvercrest Foods plant in Ballybay, Co Monaghan, a subsidiary of ABP Foods.

Silvercrest last night said it has never traded in horse meat and will carry out a “full-scale investigation” to establish how it ended up in its products.

It suspects two third-party suppliers from continental Europe are the source of the product in question.

Mr Coveney said that, to date, there was no evidence the manufacturer knowingly brought in equine meat for use in the production of the burgers.

However, to establish the source of the DNA, officials have begun examining files, interviewing management, and taking samples from the plant.

It follows a targeted study by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland of burgers, beef meal, and salami products on sale across the country.

The tests were carried out last November and mainly focused on cheap, frozen, or low-cost food. It found:

*10 out of 27 beef burger brands tested positive for horse DNA;

*23 out of 27 tested positive for pig DNA;

*21 out of 31 beef meal products, including cottage pies, lasagnes, and curries, tested positive for pig DNA.

Mr Coveney said the main concern surrounded burgers from Silvercrest Foods showing “a very high horse meat content”, which he described as totally unacceptable.

“In the food industry, reputation is everything. We have fantastic food companies in this country that have built an industry out of this island,” he said.

“Stories like this are not helpful. And this is why my department is determined to get to the bottom of it quickly.”

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland stressed there was no threat to human health from the products, but said the findings raise concerns about the traceability of meat ingredients entering the Irish food chain.

FSA chief executive Alan Reilly said: “In Ireland, it is not in our culture to eat horse meat and therefore we do not expect to find it in a burger. Likewise, for some religious groups or people who abstain from eating pig meat, the presence of traces of pig DNA is unacceptable.”

The supermarkets and retailers involved removed all implicated products from their shelves yesterday and consumers are entitled to a refund if they are returned.