Sainsbury's chief executive Justin King: Supermarkets "not out of woods" on horsemeat
The horsemeat scandal is not "the tip of an iceberg", the chief executive of a major UK supermarket chain has said.
Justin King, of Sainsbury's, made the comments after initial results of tests on processed beef revealed horsemeat was found in just over 1% of samples.
The Food Standards Agency said that after 2,501 fresh tests no new products have been identified as containing more than 1% horsemeat.
It said the 29 positive results were on seven previously withdrawn products.
They include Findus lasagne, and Tesco value spaghetti bolognese.
Meanwhile, FSA chief executive Catherine Brown said she remained "confident" that the testing was the right way to address the issue.
"It is industry's responsibility to get this right - not the government's - and we consider that a comprehensive testing programme at all points of the supply chain and in all sectors is an essential step in addressing this issue.
"And as this programme of testing and publishing results continues, and as action is taken to tackle this issue in supply chains across Europe, we will reach the point where we can say with confidence that horse meat is no longer illegally entering the UK food chain."
Mr King rejected Downing Street's criticism that supermarkets had been slow to respond to the scandal.
Continue reading the main storyWhat is meat?
- To be labelled as meat, a product needs to conform to a European Commission standard.
- Meat is restricted to skeletal muscle with naturally included fat and connective tissue.
- Any fat or connective tissue in excess of the limits set out cannot be counted towards the meat content.
- The maximum limits are:
- Pork: 30% fat, 25% connective tissue.
- Birds and rabbits: 15% fat, 10% connective tissue
- All other red meat (including beef): 25% fat, 25% connective issue.
- Mechanically recovered meat cannot be counted towards the meat content.
- The legally required minimum meat that must be included in beefburgers in the UK is 62%, or 47% for economy beefburgers
Source: Defra
On Friday, he told BBC Two's Newsnight programme: "I don't think it's the tip of an iceberg. I think there are some encouraging signs from today's tests that we are starting to get to the bottom of this particular issue."
"We, in Sainsbury's, have a huge testing programme - we have 50-odd people, whose full-time jobs are to test product.
"They test raw materials when they come into the factory. The product is delivered to our warehouses and we buy product, as customers do, to test it too. And most of the industry would say something similar.
"So, we go to great lengths to ensure our food is what we expect it to be. Trust is the core of our businesses."
However, he went on to warn that nobody can say they are "out of the woods" yet.
"There is a long way to go before we can truly say we understand how this came about and therefore what we have to do differently going forward," said Mr King.
No meat at Sainsbury's has so far been shown to contain horsemeat.
Catering giant Compass Group and Whitbread, one of Britain's largest hotel chains, have found horse DNA in products sold as beef, it emerged on Friday.
Catherine Brown, FSA chief executive, says "it is unlikely we will ever know" how many unwittingly ate horsemeat
Horsemeat has also been found in cottage pies supplied to 47 schools in Lancashire - they have been withdrawn.
Judy Hargadon, chief executive of the Children's Food Trust, a charity which campaigns for good diets and food knowledge for youngsters, said people felt let down by what had happened in Lancashire.
She said: "Whether you're a parent buying food at the supermarket or a caterer dealing with a supplier, we're all buying our food in good faith.
"What the last few weeks have taught us, here in the UK and elsewhere, is that people buying in good faith have all been let down by these issues in the supply chain."
In other developments:
Last month, Irish food inspectors said they had found horsemeat in beefburgers made by firms in the Irish Republic and the UK, and sold by a number of UK supermarket chains, including Tesco, Iceland, Aldi and Lidl.
Since then, a growing number of UK retailers have recalled processed beef products found to contain horse DNA.
Some shops have already recalled products found to be adulterated, including Asda, which withdrew a beef Bolognese sauce on Thursday - the first fresh beef product to be involved.
Aldi, Tesco and Findus have also withdrawn some beef-based ready meals.
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French food producer makes order
Comigel HQ in Metz, north-east France, asks its subsidiary, Tavola in Luxembourg, to make food products - including beef lasagne for Findus.
Factory orders meat
The Tavola factory orders the meat from Spanghero in the south of France.
Subcontractor used
Spanghero contacts a subcontractor in Cyprus to source the meat.
Subcontractor enlists trader
The Cypriot subcontractor in turn contacts a trader in the Netherlands.
Trader orders from Romania
The trader in the Netherlands places an order for meat with abattoirs in Romania.
Abattoirs send meat to France
The meat from the abattoirs travels to Spanghero in France. However, Romania rejects claims that it was responsible for wrongly describing the horsemeat from its abattoirs as beef. Horsemeat is always labelled as such, they say. The Romanian authorities claim records show orders had been for horse carcass - easily distinguishable from beef.
Meat used to make products
Spanghero sends the meat to the Comigel subsidiary?s factory in Luxembourg before the finished products are supplied to Findus and retailers across Europe, including the UK. The president of Comigel says the company was unaware the meat was coming from abroad.
Horsemeat found in Ireland and UK
Tests by Irish authorities have found equine DNA in beefburgers made by firms in the Irish Republic and the UK. Traces of horsemeat have also been found in stored meat at another plant in Ireland and one in Northern Ireland. In mainland Britain, police and officials probing alleged horsemeat mislabelling have carried out raids at a slaughterhouse in West Yorkshire and a meat firm near Aberystwyth. Three men were later arrested on suspicion of offences under the Fraud Act..
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21482439#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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