Reports claim FSA tests find 20% of meat has ‘unspecified’ animal DNA
Carried out by councils across the nation, the samples came from 487 businesses.
Of the 665 results, 145 were found to have meat from other animals – 73 of which came from retailers, 50 from restaurants and 22 from manufacturing or food processing plants, the BBC claimed.
The meat most commonly mislabelled was lamb, followed by beef and goat. Some samples had absolutely no trace of the meat described on the product’s label – with one product labelled as ostrich found to be made entirely of beef, The Times reports.
Mince meat was the most commonly mislabelled product, with kebabs and restaurant curries following behind.
However, the FSA said that the results were ‘not representative of the wider food industry’ as testing did target businesses suspected of ‘compliance issues.’
While no horsemeat contamination was found – it comes five years after the scandal – the results have raised concerns over the quality and origin of meat products in the UK.
Local authorities will now have to decided whether they lead individual investigations and take ‘appropriate action’ for each case.