No clear link between Irish horse slaughter rise and burger controversy
16/01/2013
Irish food standards technicians carried out routine checks on burgers sold by Tesco and Iceland in the UK and Ireland, and by Dunnes Stores, Lidl and Aldi only in Ireland. Results showed that in one particular sample tested, there was evidence of the presence of equine DNA “at a high level” in frozen beef burgers.
Ireland’s minister for agriculture and food, Simon Coveney, said that there was no food safety implication to this finding although it does raise concerns about the proper labelling and sourcing of food ingredients. The find has come soon after the Irish department of agriculture confirmed (in November 2012) that slaughter rates for horses have increased significantly in recent years.
At that time, the department said government-approved abattoirs in Ireland slaughtered just over 2,000 horses in 2008. A year later, the figure was 3,220. Then a considerable increase occurred in 2010, possibly because of the downturn in the Irish economy and the financial difficulties some horse-owners and stables ran into. The total number of horses slaughtered in approved abattoirs in 2010 was 7,296, an increase of 265% on two years earlier. In 2011, horse slaughter in Ireland increased by a further 72.3% to 12,575.
According to the department the hides from these horses are salted in Ireland and sold to customers in continental Europe. It keeps no formal record of these sales. It also said meat from the horses is being exported to continental Europe for human consumption as well as being used in pet food.
Initial reports suggest no direct relation between the discovery of horse meat in burgers in Ireland and the UK and this increase in horse slaughter in Irish abattoirs.
Tesco, the largest retail group in both countries, was one of the companies to sell the burgers with high levels of horse meat, with reports putting the figure at 29% of all the meat content in the product. Tesco group technical director, Tim Smith, said in a statement that the burgers, marketed as Tesco’s own, had come from an external supplier. He added: “We understand that many of our customers will be concerned by this news, and we apologise sincerely for any distress.” Tesco withdrew all products from the supplier concerned from sale.
It did not name the supplier in the statement, but in a phone call from leatherbiz, a company spokesperson identified food manufacturer Silvercrest as the source. Silvercrest is an Irish company, but it said the ingredients it had used in these products had come from two third-party suppliers in continental Europe. It said: “Silvercrest has never purchased or traded in equine product and has launched a full-scale investigation.”
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