FSA publishes further beef product test results

The FSA has published the second quarterly report industry results from the testing of beef products for horse meat or horse DNA. No results found horse meat/DNA at or above the 1% reporting threshold. The report includes 9,588 new results, of which 7,402 were submitted by ABP Food Group.

These figures include all test results submitted since the compilation of the first quarterly report, which was published in mid-June.

Catherine Brown, FSA Chief Executive, said: ‘We have continued to work with industry and local authorities since the previous set of results were published, and there has been ongoing cooperation from the food industry. This second report finds that all results are negative for horse meat/DNA at the 1% level.’

Industry testing

The food industry has continued to test beef products for the presence of horse meat/DNA during the three months since the previous quarterly update. All of the new results in this second quarterly report have found no horse meat at or above 1%. A total of 32,404 beef results tested for horse meat/DNA have been submitted by industry to the FSA since 15 February. Of these, 47 were positive.

An extensive programme of testing by UK industry and local authorities started in February, at the request of the FSA. These tests were carried out to check that beef products on sale or supplied into the UK food chain were accurately labelled and did not contain horse meat/DNA, following the discovery of horse meat being used as beef in a range of food products sold across Europe