January 16, 2013

expert reaction to horse meat found in burgers

Some beefburgers being sold in supermarkets in the UK and Ireland were found to contain horse DNA by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.

Dr Paul Wigley, Reader in Foodborne Zoonoses sat the University of Liverpool, said:

“The consumption of horse meat is not common in the UK for cultural and aesthetic reasons. There is nothing inherently unhealthy about eating horse meat and it is commonly eaten in other parts of Europe and around the world. 

“There are only a small number of abattoirs in the UK producing horse meat for human consumption but there are more in Europe.  These abattoirs are subject to the same standards and legal requirements as abattoirs producing any other type of meat for human consumption. Horses need to be accompanied by a ‘passport’ that identifies the animal and confirms that it is intended for human consumption.  The horses, as with other species, are inspected by the Official Veterinarian (OV) at the abattoir before they are killed.  Each carcass is also inspected after slaughter to ensure that it is fit for human consumption.”

Dr Emma Roe, Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Southampton, said:

“Once an animal is brought to an abattoir and slaughtered the most valued parts of the carcass are often cut, prepared and packaged immediately and sent off to supermarket shelves as fresh meat product.  The parts of the carcass that no one wants to eat as fresh meat cuts are then sent on elsewhere (including out of the country) for ‘further processing’.  The meat processor, who receives these frozen pieces of less-desired animal body parts from potentially various parts of the world, then turns them into burgers, sausages, nuggets etc.

“What is interesting is that the findings of this investigation point to the fact that the identity of the animal species and its relation to established food products, for example the beef burger, should be made from the bodies of cattle and not chickens, horses or pigs, appears to become blurred in meat processing plants.  At one level, why should it matter what species the meat comes from?  The least-favoured meat cuts they are handling need flavouring and processing to make the meat appetising, because of where the meat was harvested from the animal’s carcass.  But at another level, it’s crucial to be attentive to this, because of cultural and religious dispositions consumers have about what they are happy to eat or not, and consumers deserve transparency about what meat they are eating.”

Catherine Collins, Principal Dietitian at St George’s Hospital NHS Trust, said:

“Few of us are directly involved in food production, so provenance is extremely important in being able to trust food producers who supply our foods.  Horsemeat itself is as nutritious as other red meats, but the fact that it, and pork extracts, appeared in a beef product without notice is of concern – particularly for those following Kosher or Halal diets.  Animal husbandry is another key issue for meat eaters, and of course there is no way to know the health or welfare of the animals included in these products.”

Dr David Jukes, food law expert from the University of Reading, said:

“Manufacturers and retailers apply targeted Quality Assurance to try to ensure 100% compliance but it is not possible to guarantee this at all times – the costs involved in attempting to achieve 100% compliance through testing would be prohibitive.  Their priority is always to maintain the safety of the food supply.  Other matters, whilst important, have a lower priority when establishing QA procedures.   For these secondary aspects there is therefore greater reliance on audits and traceability to maintain confidence in the integrity of the supply chain. 

“However these systems do not, and cannot on their own, identify and prevent unscrupulous traders from fraudulently introducing cheaper ingredients into the food supply chain, which is huge and stretches around the world. We have come to expect foods to be available throughout the year with ingredients both local and exotic.  Any single manufactured food product may contain many ingredients from different parts of the world which have themselves been passed through numerous different businesses. It would be possible to create systems which are nearly 100% reliable but this would be at exorbitant cost.  However, at all stages, we rely on people – to harvest, to collect, to manufacture, to distribute – and no system can ensure that people are 100% reliable or honest.  Hence the need for effective enforcement backed by penalties which create a deterrence.

“Targeted auditing and occasional random surveillance sampling is necessary to identify these cases and they are then often followed by extensive investigations, often involving the police.  It appears, from the information currently available, that the present problem was identified through surveillance and the background to this will now be subject to detailed investigation by many different organisations and businesses.  The presence of undeclared horse meat in a beef burger is a criminal offence and will be investigated as such.

“The reasons for the current situation are unclear and it will take time for this to be resolved.  As the matter is a criminal offence, speculation should be avoided and the investigating authorities should be allowed to proceed with their work to ensure that, if appropriate, they are able to obtain the necessary evidence which will lead to a successful prosecution.  It is only through effective application of the law and the prosecution of offenders that all consumers are protected.”

Michael Walker, Science and Food Law Consultant at LGC (international analytical services company, formerly Laboratory of the Government Chemist), said:

“In the UK the presence of horsemeat and, for some, pigmeat in beefburgers, is objectionable and emphasises the need for vigilance in monitoring the supply chain with sound analytical testing.  How it got there is speculative but I agree with the Tesco spokesman quoted saying that the root causes of this incident are likely to be either illegality or negligence by suppliers.

“It is possible that human error diverted the supply of horsemeat from legitimate continental producers to the plants that seem to be implicated.  In some countries, of course, horsemeat is a legitimate part of the supply chain and traditional recipes for salami and salami-type products may include meats from animals such as wild boar, horse and donkey. 

“However, given the financial climate, it is also possible that fraud – including cheaper meats to ‘bulk up’ the main constituent meat product – is involved.

“The possibility of undeclared and unwanted meat species in meat products is a well-known risk. Thankfully there do not appear to be any health implications here but the incident emphasises the need for vigilance.  A relatively large survey for horsemeat in salami was carried out in 2003 with essentially negative findings but this sort of thing crops up from time to time.

“Regarding the presence of pigmeat in beefburgers, the FSAI have suggested that an explanation may be cross contamination from handling pork meat in the same plant. This is a credible explanation, especially if the levels found were low but is worrying in that cleaning and separation are basic to good hygiene and should have worked to prevent cross contamination.

“In the UK, it is an offence under Sections 14 and 15 of the Food Safety Act 1990 to sell food which is not of the nature, substance or quality demanded by the consumer, or to falsely or misleadingly describe or present food.  Consumers do not expect horsemeat in beefburgers and for those who wish to avoid pigmeat the description and labelling of the food must be accurate and honest to allow them to do so.

“DNA testing for meat species is a well-established technique and I am sure the FSAI laboratories carried out stringent quality control of their testing to ensure accurate results.

“Although objectionable to many, the presence of horsemeat carries no safety implications provided the proper hygiene and safety checks took place prior to and after slaughter.  However if fraud was involved there is a risk that those checks were ignored, resulting in unknown possibilities of microbiological and chemical hazards such as food poisoning and veterinary drug residues.

“Lastly there is a section of the population that is at very real risk from undeclared and fraudulent switching of food ingredients in the supply chain.  People with allergies depend on accurate and honest labelling to protect them and there have been fatalities when, for example, peanuts have been used to substitute for more expensive nuts in food products.”

Dr. Mark Tallon, Chair of the Food Law group at the Institute of Food Science & Technology (IFST), said:

“The primary issue here is likely not a safety one as cooking would kill most bacterial contamination. However, the issue is to restore public trust over control over the supply chain as these foods are clearly not of the nature and substance intended.  Pork contamination could likely be explained by poor clean-down prior to making burgers but the horse meat is more difficult to explain given the robust regulations covering the processing of beef following the BSE crisis of the 1990s. 

“A major concern is how long this issue has been occurring, given this contamination was identified a few months ago.  The traces of non-beef DNA may be a result of imported horse meat.  However, its appearance in burgers at an amount of up to 30% suggests that the meat is not simply a contaminant – but we need to await the results of a full investigation from both the retailers and food safety competent authorities before drawing any firm conclusions.”

Prof Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University London, said:

“This is an illustration of how food systems work on trust.  So far as we know, there are no safety implications, but it does raise deep concerns.

“Firstly, is it fraud?  No label declared the horsemeat or traces of pig DNA.  Secondly, it appears to be adulteration, a cheaper meat being substituted for a more expensive one. 

“Thirdly, and probably most importantly, this exposes failings in commercial food governance.  Big retailers are supposedly in control of the food system, yet their management and contracts and specifications have been found wanting.  Retailers understandably are saying this is a matter of their suppliers. These were own-label products, we are told.  If I was on their Boards of Directors I’d want an overhaul of their commercial governance on meat products.  The state’s system of food governance has worked, we should note.  The authorities audited and exposed the failures.  Good for them. 

“Finally, we need to remember that many cultures eat horse quite safely.  But if fraud and adulteration are found, it’s a sign that standards are either stretched or weakening.”

Prof Chris Elliott, Director of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast,said:

“The current information suggests that this is an issue about food integrity and not safety, thankfully.  The substitution of low quality, low value materials for the true foodstuff has plagued food production for centuries.  As we are now in a global food supply chain the changes of such events occurring have increased markedly.

“While retailers operate wide ranging audit systems to verify that their supply chains are robust there must be scientific verification that these systems are working.  This might seem a simple solution but it is far from that.  The costs involved in undertaking high-level verification will ultimately be passed to the consumer.  However, I believe this is a price worth paying to ensure what we eat is what we think we have purchased.”

Gaynor Bussell, independent dietitian, said:

“From a nutrition and food safety aspect there is no harm in eating horse meat; the real issue is that today the public expect to know the ingredients of what they are eating.  People find eating some meats unacceptable, including horse which is not usually eaten in the UK.”