If you’re planning a trip across the pond any time soon, you may want to grin and bear the weighty cuisine the Brits are famous for. Detours into the world of fast or packaged foods could prove costly, according to a BBC report confirming that on Friday the Food Standards Agency — the British equivalent of our own Food and Drug Administration — found horse DNA in beef products sold by Bird’s Eye, Taco Bell, and Brakes, a catering supplier.
This is the third wave of test results received by the FSA, which has now received a total of 5,430 test results….
This latest round of tests saw 1,797 products being examined.
A spokesman for Taco Bell is quoted as saying, “Once we learned of this issue, we immediately voluntarily tested our product for our three Taco Bell restaurants in the UK.
“Based on that testing, we learned ingredients supplied to us from one supplier in Europe tested positive for horsemeat.
“We immediately withdrew it from sale, and discontinued purchase of that meat and contacted the Food Standards Agency with this information. We apologise to our customers and take this matter very seriously as food quality is our highest priority.”
Birds Eye released a statement that reads:
We are introducing a new ongoing DNA testing programme that will ensure no minced beef meat product can leave our facilities without first having been cleared by DNA testing.”
Horsemeat was first discovered in January in frozen burgers on sale in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Since that time, traces of the equine have been discovered in processed beef products and prepared meals across the European Union.
Last week discount furniture maker Ikea withdrew a batch of frozen meatballs from sale in the food section of stores in the UK and other European countries after tests in the Czech Republic found traces of horsemeat in those products.
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