Thursday 17th January, 2013

Recent reports of horse and pig meat making their way into "beef" burgers at supermarkets across the UK have raised religious, ethical and health concerns, causing shelves to be cleared and retailers desperately analysing their supply chains. David Cameron told MPs the contamination, revealed by Irish authorities on Tuesday, was "a completely unacceptable state of affairs".

Almost £300m was wiped off the value of Tesco yesterday, with 29% of the meat in some of its burgers containing horse meat. Supermarkets with contaminated products and a British processing plant in north Yorkshire have been given until Friday to uncover the source and scale of the problem. Ultimately, David Cameron made it clear that the responsibility for what they sell and where it comes from, lies with the supermarkets.

Ireland's agriculture minister, Simon Coveney, said the traces of horsemeat probably originated in the Netherlands and Spain. He said that it was "totally unacceptable" that close to a third of the meat content of a beefburger could be found to be horsemeat.