Horse Meat Scandal One Year On – How Much Has Changed?

The discovery that some processed beef products in Ireland and the UK had traces of horsemeat in them took place a year ago.

Over the year, the trail of the source of the contamination has led across Europe to Romania and Eastern European countries, the Netherlands and France.

Product that was labelled as beef, but which contained cheaper horse meat was found in supermarket shelves in virtually every European country.

While in France and the Netherlands some arrests have been made, prosecutions in other countries and the true source of the scam have not been discovered.

And this week the Dutch food authorities recalled 11,000 kg of improperly labelled French horse meat.

The food had been delivered to the Netherlands through Belgium last year, improperly labelled as beef and unfit for human consumption.

The authorities believe the meat has already been consumed.

The recall follows the arrests in France at the end of last year of 21 traders, butchers and vets in France, suspected of trading in 200 horses from the sports and pharmaceutical industries.

However, on the first anniversary of the scandal, several market research surveys have shown that consumer confidence in the UK has been dented and buying patterns have been affected.

According to an Ipsos MORI survey, as many as 31 per cent of British adults have changed the way they choose or buy food in the past 12 months, and almost all adults in the UK (95 per cent) remember the horse meat incident.

Of those who remember the incident, 10 per cent claim to have cut down on buying processed meat, eight per cent buy fewer ready-made meals, seven per cent buy more meat from high-street butchers and seven per cent also spend more time reading labels on food products before purchasing.

The majority of people surveyed by Ipsos MORI remembered that horsemeat was found in frozen food, particularly ‘frozen burgers’ (69 per cent) and ‘frozen ready meals’ (65 per cent).

A total of 40 per cent believe that ‘suppliers misled retailers to boost profits’, and 39 per cent believe ‘suppliers cut corners under pricing pressure from supermarkets’.

A One Poll conducted to the television network ITV similarly found that a third of those questioned no longer had faith in supermarkets.

The Mori poll singled out Tesco as the supermarket chain that had been most affected by the scandal.

Maria Eagle MP, Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary, speaking ahead of the first anniversary of the horsemeat scandal, said: “One year on from the horsemeat scandal it is worrying that not all the lessons appear to have been learned.

An initial report by Prof Chris Elliott into the horse meat scandal published last year called for stricter monitoring of the food chain and a shorter food chain.

The final report is expected later this year.