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Traces of Horse Drug Found in British Beef Product

The Asda chain, which is owned by Wal-Mart, said late Monday that its Smart Price Corned Beef had been withdrawn from shelves in March after it was found to contain traces of horse meat, and that further tests showed that the banned drug, also known as bute, had been detected in very small doses.

“Asda is recalling this product and anyone who has Asda Smart Price Corned Beef should not eat it,” said a statement on the company Web site, which added that the risk to health was extremely low. Consumers were asked to return the product to stores.

The announcement is a new development in the scandal over horse meat in beef products. Until Monday, there had been no suggestion that any item sold in Britain posed a health risk. Eight horses slaughtered in Britain for human consumption tested positive for bute and although some of that meat was exported to France, none of it was used in British food, according to the authorities.

Tests to detect bute take longer than those for horse DNA, which is why the Asda product was withdrawn from shelves last month well before the discovery of traces of bute that prompted the recall.

A second Asda corned beef product that also contained horse meat traces and had been taken off supermarket shelves was also being recalled as a precaution, although no bute had been discovered, the company said.

Britain’s Food Standards Agency said Asda’s corned beef contained “very low levels of bute (four parts per billion — 4ppb) and is the only meat product where bute has been found. However, bute has previously been found in horse carcasses. The level of bute found in this product is considerably lower than the highest levels found in carcasses (the highest level found was 1900ppb).”

It cited previous comments from the chief medical officer for England, Professor Dame Sally Davies, in which she said that horse meat containing phenylbutazone presents a very low risk to human health.

“Phenylbutazone, known as bute, is a commonly used medicine in horses. It is also prescribed to some patients who are suffering from a severe form of arthritis. The levels of bute that have previously been found in horse carcasses mean that a person would have to eat 500-600 one hundred percent horse meat burgers a day to get close to consuming a human’s daily dose. And it passes through the system fairly quickly, so it is unlikely to build up in our bodies,” she said.

“In patients who have been taking phenylbutazone as a medicine, there can be serious side effects but these are rare. It is extremely unlikely that anyone who has eaten horse meat containing bute will experience one of these side effects.”

But Mary Creagh, the environment spokeswoman for the opposition Labour Party, said it was “deeply worrying that bute, a drug banned from the human food chain, has been discovered in one brand of corned beef. This product was withdrawn from sale on 8th March yet has only been formally recalled now, after testing positive for bute, meaning people could have unwittingly been eating meat containing this drug for the last month.

“This exposes the weaknesses in the government’s handling of the horse meat scandal where products were withdrawn but in some cases not tested either for horse meat or bute. The interests of the consumer should have been put first.”

The British food industry has tested around 5,400 beef products and about 1 percent showed traces of horse meat.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/world/europe/traces-of-horse-drug-found-in-british-beef-product.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Nestlé Pulls 2 Products in Horse Meat Scandal

Before the announcement late Monday, the crisis had already spread, with perhaps a dozen countries caught up in product recalls, but the involvement of Nestlé marks another significant act in a fast-moving drama which is forcing Europeans to question the contents of their meals.

Nestlé, which is based in Switzerland, said it had increased testing after the discoveries of horse meat in British foods and found “traces” of horse DNA in two products made with beef supplied by a German company named as H.J. Schypke.

The levels were above the 1 percent threshold used by the British Food Standards Agency as an indicator of adulteration in testing being conducted by Britain’s food industry and therefore the products would be withdrawn, Nestlé said in a statement.

“There is no food safety issue, but the mislabeling of products means they fail to meet the very high standards consumers expect from us,” Nestlé added.

Two chilled pasta products, Buitoni Beef Ravioli and Beef Tortellini are being taken off supermarket shelves in Italy and Spain immediately. Meanwhile, Lasagnes à la Bolognaise Gourmandes, a frozen meat product made for the catering trade in France, will also be withdrawn and replaced with product made from 100 percent beef.

Nestlé knows only too well the importance of its brand image, having once been the object of a boycott after being embroiled in a controversy over the marketing of baby milk in developing countries.

Although the current horse meat crisis has been seen mainly as an issue of fraud and mislabeling it emerged last week that a powerful equine painkiller, phenylbutazone – or bute – may have entered the food chain.

Eight horses slaughtered for food in Britain tested positive for the drug. Six of those carcasses had already been exported to France for use in human food.

In Britain, food manufacturers have embarked on a huge program of tests of food to try to stem a crisis of confidence in products originating in a long and bewilderingly complex supply chain.

Last Friday, the British Food Standards Agency released the results of 2,501 tests conducted on beef products by the British food industry, of which 29 contained more than 1 percent horse meat.

But, just as that information was released, it emerged separately that food intended for school meals had also contained horse meat and a blame game has erupted between politicians and supermarket bosses over where responsibility ultimately lies.

The European Union has also announced an increase in food testing though there are growing calls for more regulation at a European level. Though tough traceability rules for fresh beef products were introduced after the crisis over mad cow disease more than a decade ago, a similar regime is not in place for processed food.

“What has been discovered in recent days is large-scale fraud,” said Richard Seeber, the coordinator for the center-right group in the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee of the European Parliament. “This is a clear breach of current European food labeling rules. This is why the first thing we need is more controls and better enforcement of the existing rules.”

Glenis Willmott, the leader of the British Labour Party’s members of the European Parliament, said that the response of the E.U.’s executive, the European Commission, had been totally inadequate.

“The horse meat scandal should result in a Europe-wide comprehensive legislation on ‘origin labeling’ for all meat in processed foods, and a better E.U. enforcement procedure,” Ms. Willmott said.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/world/europe/nestle-pulls-2-products-in-horse-meat-scandal.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Traces of Horse Drug Found in British Beef Product

Nestlé Pulls 2 Products in Horse Meat Scandal

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