The burgers which were supplied by Irish food firm Silvercrest to retailers including Tesco as well as fast-food giant Burger King, were revealed last week by the British press to contain horse DNA.
Since the revelation was made, supermarket chain Tesco has withdrawn from sale all products supplied by Silvercrest, while Burger King said that it too had stopped using products supplied by the food firm.
Other high-street retailers, including Aldi, Lidl and Iceland, are also thought to have been supplied beef products from Silvercest.
In a statement the Ireland’s agriculture department said that the beef containing horse DNA had originated in Poland and that tests had shown that the Polish ingredients used by Silvercrest contained 4.1% horse DNA.
ABP Foods, the parent company of Silvercrest, said that it would be appointing new management team, would be conducting independent, third-party audits of suppliers and in the future would source all raw materials from Britain and Ireland.
