No horsemeat found in Irish beef; 5% of EU beef test positive
Test results on 50 samples of beef products in Ireland have all come back negative for horse DNA.
The European Commission ordered thousands of tests to be carried out in 27 EU member states following the horsemeat scandal.
The results, published this afternoon, show that less than 5% of the products tested in the EU had horse DNA.
Further tests on horses found that about 0.5% of the carcasses were contaminated with the veterinary drug bute.
Bute is banned for human use because in rare cases it causes severe side effects, but experts say there is little risk from consuming small amounts of the drug in horse meat.
European Health Commissioner Tonio Borg said that “today’s findings have confirmed that this is a matter of food fraud and not of food safety.”
He said the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, would propose measures “to strengthen the controls along the food chain.”
