Food firm used non-approved meat suppliers

ABP chief executive Paul Finnerty — whose company supplied Tesco with beef burgers that turned out to be 29% horsemeat — has told Britain’s food committee it became clear on Jan 14 to 15 that the firm was “out of specification” because product was coming in from a combination of suppliers that were not approved.

Asked how long he thought this had been going on for, the head of the Larry Goodman-owned firm answered: “I think it had been going on for a number of months”.

“This is a matter that we apologise for and as a business we apologise unreservedly for what happened at [the company’s plant] Silvercrest in the context of specification.