On this day in vegan history · January 15, 2013
Horse DNA Found in the Beef Burgers
A routine DNA test in Dublin turned a cheap frozen burger into a Europe-wide scandal, and one supermarket brand came back nearly a third horse.
The facts
- Date
- January 15, 2013
- Agency
- Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI)
- Retailers named
- Tesco, Dunnes Stores, Aldi, Lidl, and Iceland
- Worst result
- Tesco Everyday Value Beef Burgers tested at 29.1% horse DNA
On January 15, 2013, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland announced that DNA testing had found horse meat in frozen beef burgers sold by five major retailers: Tesco, Dunnes Stores, Aldi, Lidl, and Iceland, along with Asda in Britain. Of 27 beef burger products tested, 37% carried horse DNA, and one, Tesco's Everyday Value Beef Burgers, came back at 29.1% horse. FSAI chief executive Alan Reilly said plainly that eating horse simply isn't part of Irish food culture, so nobody had thought to check for it in a burger. The findings set off a continent-wide food fraud investigation and a wave of consumer distrust in cheap processed meat.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
-
In Ireland, it is not our culture to eat horse meat and therefore, we do not expect to find it in a burger
Alan Reilly, chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, January 2013
Source: Wikipedia -
Of 27 beef burger products tested, 37% were positive for horse DNA, and 85% were positive for pig DNA.
FSAI test results, as reported on Wikipedia
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
The scandal showed shoppers that even a trusted supermarket brand didn't really know what was in its own cheap meat, and it became one of the moments people point to when explaining why so many British and Irish households started eating less processed meat.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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