Waitrose pulls beefburgers 'as a precaution' amid horsemeat scare

Waitrose has become the latest supermarket to withdraw beefburgers from its shelves in the wake of the horsemeat scare.

The company said it had stopped selling frozen burgers made by Dalepak – one of the firms at the centre of the horsemeat contamination investigation – "as a precaution", following the suspension of the company's accreditation.

Ten million burgers have been taken off supermarket shelves across Ireland and the UK since it emerged that some lines sold by Tesco, Aldi, Lidl and Iceland contained traces of horsemeat.

In a statement, Waitrose said its burgers had since been tested and were found to be 100% beef.

"As a consequence we are 100% confident in the integrity of our supply chain," it said. "The ingredients in our burgers are simple with all meat traceable back to British farms that we know.

"Our technical team visited the Dalepak site last week and were happy that our products were produced to our high specification and separately from other companies' products (ours are produced at 6am before other any other burgers)."

The ABP Food Group, one of Europe's biggest suppliers and processors, stopped work at its Silvercrest Foods plant in County Monaghan, Ireland, after tests last week revealed contamination in frozen burgers.

Tests had already shown that Silvercrest Foods and another of the company's subsidiaries, Dalepak Hambleton in Yorkshire, supplied beefburgers with traces of equine DNA to supermarkets, including one product classed as 29% horse.

What a to do over nothing.Millions of pounds worth of food dumped that was totally fit for human consumption.What a crazy world we live in!

i cannot see the difference, why do people see it acceptable to eat cows yet not horse? surely they both have faces and souls , so whats the difference? why can everyone happily eat a burger out of cow but not horse?

IMO Cannibals have the right idea

schoolyjo wrote:i cannot see the difference, why do people see it acceptable to eat cows yet not horse? surely they both have faces and souls , so whats the difference? why can everyone happily eat a burger out of cow but not horse?

For the same reason we don't eat dogs or cats. Because we regard them as pets and treat them as fellow companions.

What a to do over nothing.Millions of pounds worth of food dumped that was totally fit for human consumption.What a crazy world we live in!


Problem is it was not suitable as it had drugs in it which are banned from the food chain.

The article I read said they tested for the anti-biotics but found none.!