PM vows to find Ireland's horsemeat culprit
Source: Agencies |
February 6, 2013, Wednesday
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IRELAND'S prime minister vowed yesterday to identify who has been putting horsemeat into Irish-produced burgers, a scandal that is casting doubts on the integrity of processed beef products across Europe.
Yet even as Prime Minister Enda Kenny said the problem had been linked to imported Polish meat, experts said horse could have been added to burger-bound beef later in the supply chain - and noted past examples of food-labeling fraud in Ireland.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland emphasized that the problem was a matter of honest labeling, not safety, and must involve fraud by a producer or supplier along the seven-nation journey by truck from Poland to Ireland. The reputation damage to Ireland threatens to erode international confidence in the country's top agricultural product, beef, a business worth US$2.5 billion a year to this country of 4.6 million.
"Clearly this is a matter that has to be sorted out ... a matter of reputation. Obviously we can't afford to have that," Kenny said as he entered a Cabinet meeting focused on efforts in Ireland, Britain and Poland to identify the source.
Asked whether the suspect meat product might have been misleadingly labeled as Polish by Irish fraudsters, Kenny said, "Clearly plants in Poland have been supplying material, but the evidence might be that other investigations need to take place as well."
Irish police have begun to investigate British and Irish meat traders involved in buying the Polish product and selling it on to Silvercrest and Rangeland, two Irish producers of frozen beef burgers in County Monaghan. Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney, who was testifying to lawmakers yesterday, said Ireland's two other major producers of frozen beef burgers did not import any meat from Poland.
DNA testing on dozens of frozen burgers in Irish stores commissioned by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland uncovered the apparent fraud. The first results published January 15 found 29 percent horsemeat content in one Silvercrest-produced burger for Tesco, the biggest supermarket chain in Britain and Ireland. Subsequent DNA tests by the British supermarket Co-op found another Silvercrest-made burger with 18 percent horsemeat.
And on Monday night, Ireland's Agriculture Department said an original batch of the Polish-labeled product found in the deep-freeze storage at Rangeland was 75 percent horsemeat. Hours later across the border in the British territory of Northern Ireland, tests on similar product at a cold storage unit and earmarked for delivery to Silvercrest was found to be 80 percent horsemeat.
Yet even as Prime Minister Enda Kenny said the problem had been linked to imported Polish meat, experts said horse could have been added to burger-bound beef later in the supply chain - and noted past examples of food-labeling fraud in Ireland.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland emphasized that the problem was a matter of honest labeling, not safety, and must involve fraud by a producer or supplier along the seven-nation journey by truck from Poland to Ireland. The reputation damage to Ireland threatens to erode international confidence in the country's top agricultural product, beef, a business worth US$2.5 billion a year to this country of 4.6 million.
"Clearly this is a matter that has to be sorted out ... a matter of reputation. Obviously we can't afford to have that," Kenny said as he entered a Cabinet meeting focused on efforts in Ireland, Britain and Poland to identify the source.
Asked whether the suspect meat product might have been misleadingly labeled as Polish by Irish fraudsters, Kenny said, "Clearly plants in Poland have been supplying material, but the evidence might be that other investigations need to take place as well."
Irish police have begun to investigate British and Irish meat traders involved in buying the Polish product and selling it on to Silvercrest and Rangeland, two Irish producers of frozen beef burgers in County Monaghan. Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney, who was testifying to lawmakers yesterday, said Ireland's two other major producers of frozen beef burgers did not import any meat from Poland.
DNA testing on dozens of frozen burgers in Irish stores commissioned by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland uncovered the apparent fraud. The first results published January 15 found 29 percent horsemeat content in one Silvercrest-produced burger for Tesco, the biggest supermarket chain in Britain and Ireland. Subsequent DNA tests by the British supermarket Co-op found another Silvercrest-made burger with 18 percent horsemeat.
And on Monday night, Ireland's Agriculture Department said an original batch of the Polish-labeled product found in the deep-freeze storage at Rangeland was 75 percent horsemeat. Hours later across the border in the British territory of Northern Ireland, tests on similar product at a cold storage unit and earmarked for delivery to Silvercrest was found to be 80 percent horsemeat.
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