Horsemeat test results due to be released today

Test results due to be released today should prove whether or not a food additive sourced overseas was the cause of the 29% horse DNA content in a budget Tesco burger.

Last night, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney refused to reveal the results of tests on 24 burger samples which had been sent to Germany. Those results arrived back yesterday evening but the minister said he had not had a chance to look at them in detail and wanted to cross-check the results.

When he revealed on RTÉ’s Prime Time that the results were back, it was put to him that he should release them immediately.

He replied: “People are saying to us that we shouldn’t be releasing information without being absolutely sure of what we are saying. So we will over the next couple of days be releasing more test results.”

He said the results would “probably” emerge today or tomorrow when he could “give the full detail and the explanation of it”.

“I am not going to give any news on test results until I am sure I can stand over those results.”

The Department of Agriculture said yesterday the latest test results included further analysis of one ingredient which had already tested positive for equine content. That ingredient was sourced overseas and departmental test results published on Jan 17 showed it was the only one of seven ingredients to test positive.

Today’s results will show whether that equine DNA content was negligible — ruling it out as the source of the contamination — or of a higher value, indicating it may have been responsible for the 29.1% horse DNA content which sparked the contamination scandal.

A source in the department said yesterday that even if the test result was negative, all other ingredients involved in the manufacture of the Silvercrest-produced burger have also been tested. Up to 130 samples have been tested in Ireland and Germany as part of the investigation.

Meanwhile, there is growing concern within farming organisations and beef producers about Burger King’s decision to source its beef elsewhere.

It had been sourcing its beef from Silvercrest, which suspended production at its Ballybay factory in Monaghan last week.