Source: REUTERS written by Padraic Halpin
ABP Foods blamed suppliers it said appeared to have delivered mislabeled beef from Poland…
The Irish company at the center of a scandal in Europe over horsemeat in beef products, said on Thursday it is leaving the frozen burger market after selling the factory where burgers containing horse DNA were first discovered.
The scandal, which has damaged confidence in parts of the industry and hit sales of processed ready-meals, erupted in January when inspectors found beef burgers produced by Irish company ABP Foods on the shelves of Tesco contained 29 percent horse meat.
ABP Foods, which lost contracts with Burger King, Aldi and Tesco as a result, blamed suppliers it said appeared to have delivered mislabeled beef from Poland, an accusation backed by the Irish government.
However, Europe’s largest beef exporter said on Thursday that it had sold the Silvercrest factory where it had produced the burgers to fellow Irish food producer, Kepak Group.
“Our decision to sell the facility allows the Group to move forward positively with our core chilled beef business and other developing businesses,” ABP Foods Chief Executive Paul Finnerty said in a statement.
Ireland returned no positive results for horsemeat this week in official DNA tests ordered across Europe in the wake of the controversy that showed more cases of illegal horsemeat in beef products in France than any other European Union country.
Click (HERE) to visit Reuters and to Comment
Related Articles
- France finds most horsemeat in EU (news.yahoo.com)
- Italy, France find more horse meat in beef (worldbulletin.net)
- Kepak buys Silvercrest plant from ABP (irishtimes.com)
- Arrests, Culprit Named in World-Wide Horsemeat Scandal (rtfitchauthor.com)
Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
They just don’t get it….still blaming their “suppliers”
LikeLike
Often these kinds of sales of companies are only a slight of hand gesture to keep the public off-track from the truth and give the company a “fresh face” … and then they go back to the same old practices. To most companies ONLY money talks.
LikeLike
“and losses in the United States, which Tesco is expected to exit.”
Tesco owns Fresh and Easy here in the US. I have never shopped at our local F&E because they opened fully automated eliminating jobs that the competing supermarkets still maintain. However, there is no chance I would have bought horse meat in beef there, because I do not eat meat.
LikeLike