FSA statement on horse meat investigation

The FSA has, this morning, issued a further statement about the horse meat issue.

‘This is a very serious issue. The evidence we have about the two cases, of the significant amount of horse meat in burgers and lasagne, points to either gross negligence or deliberate contamination in the food chain. This is why we have already involved the police, both here and in Europe.

‘We believe that these two particular cases – the frozen burgers from Tesco and the lasagne from Findus – are linked to suppliers in Ireland and France respectively. We are working closely with the authorities in these countries to get to the root of the problem. Our priority remains to protect UK consumers. People have been asking whether it is safe to eat any frozen meat products at the moment. There is no reason to suspect that there’s any health issue with frozen food in general, and we wouldn’t advise people to stop eating it.

‘In the particular cases of the Findus lasagne and the Tesco burgers, they have been withdrawn from sale. Anyone who has them in their freezer should return them to retailers as a precaution. In addition to the widespread testing we are doing, we’ve instructed the industry to urgently carry out its own tests on processed beef products to see whether horsemeat is present.’