Dutch officials contacted in burger inquiry

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.

Roel Vincken, senior press officer at the Dutch food safety agency, the NVWA, confirmed the Food Safety Authority of Ireland had contacted it yesterday afternoon.

“We are taking part in the investigation now,” Mr Vincken said, adding that research had to be done and no conclusions should be drawn.

However, speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney indicated he has his suspicions about the company involved, in either Spain or the Netherlands, and “what we need now is the proof”. He said his department contacted the food safety authority in the country where the product was sourced “to raise the issue with them and to ask them to investigate where the material is going”.

In its statement issued on Thursday, ABP Food Group — which owns Silvercrest, the company in Co Monaghan that produced the affected burgers — said: “We believe that we have established the source of the contaminated material to one of these two [third-party continental] suppliers.”

Last night, neither the Department of Agriculture nor the FSAI would confirm or deny that the Dutch authorities had been contacted or say if the Spanish food safety authority had been similarly contacted.

A burger produced at the Silvercrest factory and sold in Tesco was found to have 29% horse DNA, with test results released on Thursday night by the department showing ongoing equine content in some produce.

Silvercrest has suspended all production at the Ballybay factory and it emerged that the supplier of the additive thought to be the source of the horse content was still supplying Silvercrest up until news of the problem broke at the start of this week. ABP is conducting its own DNA testing of its produce with results expected in the coming days. ABP said it also carried out unannounced spot checks of its European suppliers this week.

Yesterday, Siptu said it was time for a root and branch investigation into all aspects of the meat industry, including traceability from farm to plate, health and safety issues and employment practices.

Siptu’s Andrew McCarthy urged Mr Coveney and Jobs Minister Richard Bruton to “act swiftly to eliminate any rogue practices in the meat industry”.

There has also been growing concern over the strength of European monitoring and inspection regulations, while ICMSA president John Comer said the “relentless” drive for cheaper food had played a role in the latest controversy.

However, Frederic Vincent, spokesman for Tonio Borg of the European Commission directorate general for health and consumers, said the situation surrounding the horsemeat content was “not a food safety issue”.