10 million burgers cleared from shelves as it's feared we may have been eating horse meat for YEARS

The meat industry revealed that until recently there had been no tests available for equine DNA in the UK or Ireland, as we are not horse eaters

More than 10 million beefburgers have been cleared from supermarket shelves over the horse meat scandal – as fears last night grew that the contaminated food has been sold to shoppers for years.

Silvercrest – the Irish firm at the centre of the probe that found a sample from Tesco’s budget brand Everyday Value was 29% horse meat – admitted it has never checked supplies for “equine DNA”.

As shock and revulsion spread across Britain, there were concerns that the industry’s failure to test routinely for horse meat in supermarket beef products may have masked a tainted burger controversy over several years.

The meat industry revealed that until recently there had been no tests available for equine DNA in the UK or Ireland, as we are not horse eaters.

But yesterday it was revealed contaminated products were left on the shelves for two months after the Food Standards Agency of Ireland failed to inform retailers of their findings until this week.

The FSAI admitted that it knew traces of horse meat were in burgers two months ago after carrying out the first ever routine horse DNA tests on 27 supermarket own brands.

Its table of test results acquired last November showed some of the contaminated burgers had a shelf life of at least a year – and up to 18 months. That raised yet more concerns about how long horse meat burgers have been on sale.

Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University said yesterday: “It could have been going on for years but we wouldn’t know about it because we have never conducted tests. For too long we have had light touch regulation.”

Plant: Silvercrest Foods at Ballybay, County Monaghan in Ireland

PA

Labour MP Barry Gardiner, a member of the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee, said: “People who have been eating this food for the past year have a right to feel angry and upset and the firms should be held to account. If ever there was a case for heads to roll, this is it.”

Silvercrest-supplied Burger King, the world’s second biggest fast food chain, issued a statement saying it was confident it had not been affected.

But a Silvercrest Foods spokesman told the Mirror: “No one in the meat processing industry checks for equine products.

"The suppliers and processes are EU-approved, so they have gone through a checking procedure.”

The shocking admission that there were no safeguards in place for DNA checks across its supply chain forced Asda, Sainsbury’s and the Co-op to scrap a total of 22 own-label burger ranges yesterday, as Silvercrest and sister firm Dalepak also make their beef patties.

All three chains stressed the move was “precautionary” and no products were directly affected.

Asda said: “We take matters like this extremely seriously, despite the fact we aren’t implicated in this report.”

The Co-op echoed that and Sainsbury’s said: “All our burgers are made from 100% British beef but as a precautionary measure we are withdrawing those sourced from Dalepak.”

Tesco cleared its shelves earlier this week as it emerged watchdogs knew of a problem as early as November.

More than a third of frozen burgers were found to contain horse DNA during the IFSA’s initial tests two months ago.

Budget burgers from Tesco and patties from Iceland, Aldi, Lidl and Dunnes Stores tested positive.

But the ISFA’s own procedures meant three more tests had to be carried out to verify its findings before its results were made public on Monday and shelves cleared.

It said new testing methods allowed it to check randomly for horse DNA – and admitted it was a “massive coincidence” that its first ever probe revealed 10 out of 27 products were contaminated, one with 29% horse meat.

Off the menu: 10 million burgers cleared from shelves