Frozen beefburgers on sale in Aldi, Iceland, Lidl and Tesco found to contain traces of horsemeat, says food safety watchdog

Four major supermarket chains operating in Britain – Aldi, Iceland, Lidl and Tesco – are withdrawing a number of beef products after horse DNA was found in burgers sold by them in the UK and Ireland.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), which made the discovery, said the burgers were produced by two meat processing plants in Ireland, Liffey Meats and Silvercrest Foods, and by the Dalepak Hambleton plant in the UK.

In nine of the 10 burger samples from the four retailers, and from the Irish chain Dunnes Stores, horse DNA was found at very low levels. However, in one sample, Tesco Everyday Value Beef Burgers, the level of positive DNA indicated horsemeat accounted for 29% relative to the beef content. Many of them were also found to contain pig DNA.

The FSAI said the retailers have agreed to remove all implicated batches from sale.

Prof Alan Reilly, chief executive of the FSAI, said that while the findings posed no risk to health, they did raise concerns. “The products we have identified as containing horse DNA and/or pig DNA do not pose any food safety risk and consumers should not be worried,” he added.

“Consumers who have purchased any of the implicated products can return them to their retailer.

“While there is a plausible explanation for the presence of pig DNA in these products, due to the fact that meat from different animals is processed in the same meat plants, there is no clear explanation at this time for the presence of horse DNA in products emanating from meat plants that do not use horsemeat in their production process.”

He said it was not part of Irish culture to eat horsemeat: “We do not expect to find it in a burger; likewise, for some religious groups or people who abstain from eating pig meat, the presence of traces of pig DNA is unacceptable.”

Tesco said in a statement that it had immediately withdrawn from sale all products from the supplier in question and was working with the authorities in Ireland and the UK, and with the suppliers concerned, to ensure that type of contamination did not happen again. “We will not take any products from this site until the conclusion and satisfactory resolution of an investigation,” it said.

“The safety and quality of our food is of the highest importance to Tesco. We will not tolerate any compromise in the quality of the food we sell. The presence of illegal meat in our products is extremely serious.”

Iceland said it had noted “with concern” the statement issued by the FSAI and had withdrawn from sale the two Iceland brand quarter-pounder burger lines implicated in the study, pending further investigation.

Aldi said it was conducting its own investigation while Lidl said it has taken the decision to remove all implicated products from sale pending an investigation.

Silvercrest Foods said it was pulling products from sale and replacing them with new lines.

The FSAI analysed 27 beef burger products with best-before dates from last June to March 2014, with 10 of the 27 products - 37% - testing positive for horse DNA and 85% testing positive for pig DNA.

A total of 31 beef meal products such as cottage pie, beef curry pie and lasagne were tested, with 21 found to be positive for pig DNA. All were negative for horsemeat.

Another 19 salami products were tested but showed no signs of horse DNA. The FSAI analysis also found traces of horse DNA in batches of raw ingredients, including some imported from the Netherlands and Spain.

The DNA tests found horse in the following products: Tesco Everyday Value Beef Burgers, 29.1%; Tesco Beef Quarter Pounders, 0.1%; Oakhurst Beef Burgers in Aldi, 0.3%; Moordale Quarter Pounders in Lidl, 0.1%; Flamehouse Chargrilled Quarter Pounders in Dunnes Stores, 0.1%; two varieties of Iceland Quarter Pounders, 0.1%.