Source: The Irish Times – reported by Alison Healy
Steps to prevent other species entering food chain taken after horse meat crisis
The horse meat crisis has led the world’s largest food manufacturer Nestle to test for the presence of meat such as kangaroo and dog. Photograph: Michaela Rehle /Reuters
The horse meat crisis has led the world’s largest food manufacturer Nestle to test for the presence of meat such as kangaroo and dog, head of food safety at the firm’s research centre Dr John O’Brien said yesterday.
Dr O’Brien, a former head of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, said people working in food safety had now become molecular detectives. “Not only are we concerned with horse, we are also keeping an eye on kangaroo, dogs, goats and a few other species and asking questions. Could any of these find their way into the food chain? So we have probes for all of those.”
Dr O’Brien was speaking at the Agricultural Science Association conference in Waterford yesterday. Nestle was one of many food companies drawn into the horse meat crisis earlier this year. It had to withdraw product in Italy, Spain and France after it was found to contain horse DNA.
ABP Food Group was one of the companies at the centre of the horse meat controversy and had to sell its Silvercrest burger production plant in the wake of the crisis but yesterday ABP chief executive Paul Finnerty told the 300 delegates that the company was “standing tall” after the crisis and its customer base was intact. “We didn’t lose any customers in our chilled beef business and I think it’s fair to say that the reputation of Irish beef internationally has not been damaged,” he said. “We’re still in the business of frozen burgers in the UK and continue to serve five of the top seven retailers in that particular market place.”
Earlier Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney said 15 new markets had opened to Irish food, predominantly Irish beef, in the past year. “In my view our reputation as a food producer has actually been enhanced by those challenges in the early part of the year, rather than damaged. The proof of that is in the demand for Irish beef.”
Mr Coveney said he would be promoting the agri-food industry in the Gulf region next month while Taoiseach Enda Kenny will travel to Japan later this year.
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Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
I most definitely feel that other forms of meat could, in fact, be contaminating the food supply as well. Corruption comes in all forms and spans the globe. My perfect world is vegan. Just take a moment to grasp that concept………………………………
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This is great!!!!! The only way horse slaughter will stop is make it not profitable “Follow The Money”
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Unfortunately, even being vegan does not protect one because of the proliferation of GMO crops.
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Buy organic and certified non-GMO. Most (80%) of the GMO crops are fed to animals – soy, corn & cottonseed meal. Carnivores eat GMOs second-hand even if they are careful about their plant food being non-GMO. Where even careful people can run into trouble is with canola oil, most of which is GMO. Switch to grapeseed oil for a high temperature cooking oil, and use olive oil for other purposes.
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At least they are on the look out for horse meat. I wonder too if dog meat is being imported into the EU from the countries that eat it. Its strange that it was listed as one of the meats they are checking for. As far as I know kangaroo has always been used as dog food in Australia. The government has to thin them out because they eat up so much of the crops even with fences. Sort of like the feral hog population in TX that can’t be controlled. I think we have been eating GMO for years without knowing about it. With the fight still going on about labeling all food that is GMO the producers are afraid the public will stop buying their products which would probably empty a lot of supermarket shelves.
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No one should have to worry about the quality or contents of what their consuming…is it any wonder why people are turning away from buying beef?! It’s very sad, because in the end, no one wins.
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