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| Previously, beefburgers and ready meals contaminated with horse meat have been traced to Romania and Poland Photo: AFP |
By Steven Swinford and Alice Philipson
The Food Standards Agency closed a slaughterhouse in West Yorkshire and a
processing plant in Wales after an investigation found horse carcasses had been
used to make beefburgers and kebabs sold in Britain.
The Environment Secretary said he was absolutely shocked by the allegations
and expected the full force of the law to be used against anyone involved in the
trade.
The raids represent the first time British meat suppliers have been involved
in the scandal since contaminated beefburgers were discovered in January.
Previously, beefburgers and ready meals contaminated with horse meat have
been traced to Romania and Poland.
Owen Paterson, the Environment Secretary, said: “This is absolutely shocking.
“It’s totally unacceptable if any business in the UK is defrauding the public
by passing off horse meat as beef.
“I expect the full force of the law to be brought down on anyone involved in this kind of activity.”
In a separate development, Waitrose cleared its shelves on Tuesday of its Essential British Frozen Beef Meatballs after DNA tests showed they contained up to a third pork.
Tests on hundreds of other British beef products by supermarkets will be published on Friday.
The Food Standards Agency said that the Peter Boddy Licenced Slaughterhouse in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, had supplied Farmbox Meats, a processing company near Aberystwyth, West Wales, with horse carcasses.
Both companies were raided on Tuesday by food safety inspectors and police and full lists of customers were seized. The FSA said the horse meat passed off as beef was sold in Britain, although it did not know which retailers had stocked it.
Mr Boddy, 63, runs a slaughterhouse from his farm, which is licensed to kill cattle, horses, poultry and even ostriches. He also runs a separate business which specialises in capturing dangerous and wild animals, including horses which have bolted.
His website states: “Peter has been involved in the live animal capture business for over 20 years and is recognized as one of the most highly spoken specialists in a very demanding line of work.”
He also rears red stags for breeding at a deer park. The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday spoke to Mr Boddy’s son, who declined to be named but said: “It’s a load of hype, it’s not true. It’s crap.”
Farmbox Meats is a processing plant owned by Dafydd Raw-Rees, 64, who has run his plant for the past three years.
He said that, until three weeks ago, his plant specialised in processing beef, but that he has recently been contracted to process horse meat sold in Belgium.
He confirmed his plant was visited by police on Tuesday but denied passing off horse as beef and said he was not supplied by Peter Boddy.
He said: “We would never confuse horse meat with beef, we are just a cutting plant. I merely debone the meat and send it back as part of the contract. The horse meat is sold in Belgium.”
He referred queries to Colin Patterson, his plant manager. When contacted by The Daily Telegraph, a man answered the phone as Colin then hung up. When contacted again, he said he was in fact Dai the cleaner, adding that Mr Patterson was unavailable.
Mr Patterson was charged with selling illegally slaughtered and unfit meat to the public in 2002. He was later cleared of the offence at Swansea Crown Court. Mr Raw-Rees was also arrested but not charged.
Andrew Rhodes, the FSA’s director of operations, said: “I ordered an audit of all horse producing abattoirs in the UK after this issue first arose last month and I was shocked to uncover what appears to be a blatant misleading of consumers. I have suspended both plants immediately while our operations continue.”
A spokesman for the Food Standards Agency said: “As part of its ongoing investigation into the mislabelling of meat products, the FSA and police today entered two meat premises.
“The agency and police are looking into the circumstances through which meat products, purporting to be beef for kebabs and burgers, were sold when they were in fact horse.”
Mary Creagh, the shadow environment secretary, said: “I welcome the action taken tonight by the FSA and the police. I’m glad the FSA has investigated the concerns about horse meat entering the food chain I first raised with ministers three weeks ago. It’s right that action is being taken to deal with the criminals whose activities are damaging confidence in the UK food industry.”
The FSA was criticised by one of its former executives yesterday for abandoning food testing which could have identified horse meat contamination after pressure from supermarkets. Dr Mark Woolfe, the former head of food authenticity at the agency, said it stopped commissioning tests because retailers objected to being “named and shamed”.
He also said the horse meat scandal was caused by a European Union ban on a British beef product, which forced retailers to source their meat abroad.
An FSA spokesman said it was “not aware” of a link between the ban on the meat product and the horse meat scandal.
A spokesman for Waitrose said that tests on the 480g packs of 16 frozen Essential Waitrose Meatballs had been contradictory but it was removing them from sale as a precaution.
“In two batches of our frozen meatballs produced last summer, some of the meatballs may contain some pork,” he said.
“Several tests have been done on this product and, even though the results have been contradictory, we have taken the precaution of removing the frozen meatballs from sale and putting up customer information notices in our branches. The meatballs are safe to eat but pork is not listed as an ingredient and should not be part of the recipe.”
“I expect the full force of the law to be brought down on anyone involved in this kind of activity.”
In a separate development, Waitrose cleared its shelves on Tuesday of its Essential British Frozen Beef Meatballs after DNA tests showed they contained up to a third pork.
Tests on hundreds of other British beef products by supermarkets will be published on Friday.
The Food Standards Agency said that the Peter Boddy Licenced Slaughterhouse in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, had supplied Farmbox Meats, a processing company near Aberystwyth, West Wales, with horse carcasses.
Both companies were raided on Tuesday by food safety inspectors and police and full lists of customers were seized. The FSA said the horse meat passed off as beef was sold in Britain, although it did not know which retailers had stocked it.
Mr Boddy, 63, runs a slaughterhouse from his farm, which is licensed to kill cattle, horses, poultry and even ostriches. He also runs a separate business which specialises in capturing dangerous and wild animals, including horses which have bolted.
His website states: “Peter has been involved in the live animal capture business for over 20 years and is recognized as one of the most highly spoken specialists in a very demanding line of work.”
He also rears red stags for breeding at a deer park. The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday spoke to Mr Boddy’s son, who declined to be named but said: “It’s a load of hype, it’s not true. It’s crap.”
Farmbox Meats is a processing plant owned by Dafydd Raw-Rees, 64, who has run his plant for the past three years.
He said that, until three weeks ago, his plant specialised in processing beef, but that he has recently been contracted to process horse meat sold in Belgium.
He confirmed his plant was visited by police on Tuesday but denied passing off horse as beef and said he was not supplied by Peter Boddy.
He said: “We would never confuse horse meat with beef, we are just a cutting plant. I merely debone the meat and send it back as part of the contract. The horse meat is sold in Belgium.”
He referred queries to Colin Patterson, his plant manager. When contacted by The Daily Telegraph, a man answered the phone as Colin then hung up. When contacted again, he said he was in fact Dai the cleaner, adding that Mr Patterson was unavailable.
Mr Patterson was charged with selling illegally slaughtered and unfit meat to the public in 2002. He was later cleared of the offence at Swansea Crown Court. Mr Raw-Rees was also arrested but not charged.
Andrew Rhodes, the FSA’s director of operations, said: “I ordered an audit of all horse producing abattoirs in the UK after this issue first arose last month and I was shocked to uncover what appears to be a blatant misleading of consumers. I have suspended both plants immediately while our operations continue.”
A spokesman for the Food Standards Agency said: “As part of its ongoing investigation into the mislabelling of meat products, the FSA and police today entered two meat premises.
“The agency and police are looking into the circumstances through which meat products, purporting to be beef for kebabs and burgers, were sold when they were in fact horse.”
Mary Creagh, the shadow environment secretary, said: “I welcome the action taken tonight by the FSA and the police. I’m glad the FSA has investigated the concerns about horse meat entering the food chain I first raised with ministers three weeks ago. It’s right that action is being taken to deal with the criminals whose activities are damaging confidence in the UK food industry.”
The FSA was criticised by one of its former executives yesterday for abandoning food testing which could have identified horse meat contamination after pressure from supermarkets. Dr Mark Woolfe, the former head of food authenticity at the agency, said it stopped commissioning tests because retailers objected to being “named and shamed”.
He also said the horse meat scandal was caused by a European Union ban on a British beef product, which forced retailers to source their meat abroad.
An FSA spokesman said it was “not aware” of a link between the ban on the meat product and the horse meat scandal.
A spokesman for Waitrose said that tests on the 480g packs of 16 frozen Essential Waitrose Meatballs had been contradictory but it was removing them from sale as a precaution.
“In two batches of our frozen meatballs produced last summer, some of the meatballs may contain some pork,” he said.
“Several tests have been done on this product and, even though the results have been contradictory, we have taken the precaution of removing the frozen meatballs from sale and putting up customer information notices in our branches. The meatballs are safe to eat but pork is not listed as an ingredient and should not be part of the recipe.”
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Source: Horse meat 'passed off as beef' by UK firms
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