Silvercrest loses Tesco deal over horsemeat

Tesco has pulled the plug on its €15m contract with Silvercrest following the horsemeat scandal as the Irish company braced itself for the possibility of Burger King following suit.

The Co-operative Group has also cancelled its contract after independent tests of its own-brand beef burgers supplied by the company, had found traces of less than 1% horse DNA in three samples and 17.7% in one sample.

In a statement, Tesco Group technical director Tim Smith said “the breach of trust is too great” after tests confirmed Silvercrest had sourced material for its budget burgers from suppliers not approved by the supermarket chain.

“The evidence tells us that our frozen burger supplier, Silvercrest, used meat in our products that did not come from the list of approved suppliers we gave them,” said Mr Smith.

“Consequently, we have decided not to take products from Silvercrest in future. We took that decision with regret but the breach of trust is simply too great.”

Yesterday Fine Gael TD Seán Conlan said he was in contact with Tesco, seeking to have them reverse the move to drop Silvercrest.

Some 10m burgers were taken from the shelves after burgers tested by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland were found to contain 29% horsemeat.

Amid the fallout, ABP Food Group, which owns Silvercrest, has installed a new management structure at the plant.

Meetings have also been held with Burger King, which suspended supply of beef from Silvercrest as a precautionary measure.

The company did not say whether it would reconsider its arrangements.

It is uncertain if Tesco is considering legal action. The company said it would now introduce DNA testing across its food range.

However, Tony Keohane, CEO of Tesco Ireland, said the company was “committed to the Irish food and drink industry and will continue to be the largest buyer of Irish food in the world”.

He said Tesco will continue to buy fresh Irish beef worth over €100m a year from other ABP firms, and that it would open talks with other Irish beef processors in relation to the sourcing of frozen burgers in the near future.

That news was welcomed by John Bryan, president, Irish Farmers’ Association, who said: “Serious lessons from the equine DNA episode must be learned, and measures put in place to ensure that something like this never happens again.”

The IFA has sought meetings with the meat industry and the regulatory authorities to demand new controls are put in place at processing level.

ABP chief executive Paul Finnerty said: “We have learnt important lessons from this incident and we are determined to ensure that this never happens again.”

The source of the equine content has been traced to Poland.

MEP Liam Aylward said he had submitted a request for a response from the European Commission as to what measures will be taken to address the issue, as well as calling for a feasibility study on increasing the legal requirements for testing regimes used across the EU.