Sainsbury’s has become the latest UK supermarket to withdraw burger products from sale in response to the horse meat contamination scandal.
As a precaution, the retailer has pulled from sale 13 own-label frozen burger products produced by Dalepak – one of the suppliers whose products tested positive for horse DNA in a survey by the Food Standards Agency of Ireland.
A spokesman for Sainsbury’s said although the products it was withdrawing were not actually implicated in the scandal, Sainsbury’s had decided to act on as a precautionary measure. “As our customers would expect, we treat matters like this extremely seriously,” he said. “All our burgers are made from 100% British beef, but as a precautionary measure we are withdrawing those sourced from Dalepak.”
Sainsbury’s announcement comes after Asda and The Co-operative Food announced they were withdrawing a number of their frozen burger lines – supplied by Silvercrest Foods – as a precaution.
Two of Tesco’s burgers supplied by Silvercrest tested positive for horse DNA in the FSAI survey, and the retailer has withdrawn a total of 26 burger lines while it investigates the source of the contamination with its suppliers.
During Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons earlier today, David Cameron reiterated there was no risk to public safety as a result of the horse meat but described its discovery as “disturbing” and stressed the Food Standards Agency was conducting an “urgent investigation”.
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