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Irish plant shuts over new horsemeat in burgers
DUBLIN — Ireland says food safety officials have found more horsemeat traces in beef burgers and pinpointed a problem in an imported ingredient, and the meat processing plant has shut its production line in response.
The Irish Agriculture Department announced Thursday night that nine of 13 burgers analyzed Tuesday have tested positive for horse DNA. It says seven ingredients added to the Irish beef also were tested – and only one, imported from another European country, tested positive for horse DNA.
The processing plant at the center of the controversy, Silvercrest Foods in the Irish border county of Monaghan, says it’s suspending operations indefinitely pending further investigations into why horsemeat is getting into its products.
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Clive Jones - Global Heat TransferFebruary 13, 2013 - 1:50 am
Reports of horsemeat and pig DNA being found in beef products sold in UK and Irish supermarkets is shocking but not surprising. Let’s be clear; I strongly doubt there is an agenda among food manufacturers to ‘pass off’ one meat as another. Furthermore, I doubt that there is confusion at a high level within the British food industry about the hygiene standards required to avoid such contamination. Below that level, there are questions to be asked. There is undoubtedly a level of misunderstanding about manufacturing compliance overall in the food industry. My own insight comes from the provision of oils used by food manufacturers to provide heat for their processing lines. It is an international requirement that these be food grade – so that they can’t contaminate product with non Food Grade fluid. However, many of the companies I meet for the first time are unaware that they should be using only food grade heat transfer oils. A total of 27 burger products were analysed, with 10 of them containing traces of horse DNA and 23 containing pig DNA. In addition, 31 beef based ready meals, including cottage pie, beef curry pie and lasagne, were analysed, of which 21 tested positive for pig DNA. The problem was first discovered by the Irish Food Standard independent test, which highlights the value of independent testing. This isn’t coincidence. What is required is better understanding and application of the regulations we already have that can prevent this kind of contamination. Without this understanding, such contamination is not just possible, it’s inevitable.
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