EU Tests Show Five per cent of Beef Products Contaminated with Horse Meat

Less than five per cent of the samples taken in the European-wide tests on beef products have been found to be contaminated with horse meat.

The coordinated EU-wide testing for horse meat DNA and phenylbutazone was requested, and co-financed, by the European Commission in the wake of the horse meat scandal last month.

The tests also showed that about 0.5 per cent of the equine carcases tested were found to be contaminated with bute – ­phenylbutazone.

In the coordinated testing plan, which is estimated to have cost €2.5 million, controls were to be carried out, mainly at retail level, of food destined for the end consumer and marketed as containing beef, to detect the presence of unlabelled horse meat and also to test for the possible presence of bute in horsemeat.

In all 7,259 tests were carried out by the authorities in the 27 EU countries, of which 4,144 tested for the presence of horse meat DNA and 3,115 tested for the presence of phenylbutazone.

Of those tests, 193 revealed positive traces of horse meat DNA (4.66 per cent) and 16 showed positive traces of bute (0.51 per cent).

In addition, the EU countries reported another 7,951 tests for the presence of horse meat DNA performed by food business operators (producers, processors and distributors).

Of these, 110 contained horse meat DNA (1.38 per cent).

In France, The French Agriculture Ministry has set out a three pronged attack to restore confidence in the French pig meat sector, following a round table meeting with pig sector representatives.

The government is looking to raise large investment in production, processing and environmental performance.

It also wants to provide opportunities for the industry to change and to better withstand price volatility.

The government also wants to give a marketing boost to the French origin designation of its products.