15 January: supermarket products found to contain horsemeat
When our initial results on supermarket burgers showed that the products we had tested contained equine DNA, my first reaction was that it was impossible. Somewhere along the line there had been a mistake – or these products had been accidentally contaminated. After we repeated the tests with new samples, our priority became to make absolutely sure that it wasn't a food-safety issue. We tested the meat for veterinary drugs and found none present in doses high enough for it to be dangerous to humans. But what we did know was that we had a food fraud issue on our hands.
We had to inform the food manufacturing companies involved, who then told the supermarkets they supply what we'd found. The supermarkets pulled their contaminated products from the shelves and that's how the story broke. When I looked at the results, I knew the tsunami of horse manure this would cause, but I could never imagine what would be uncovered across Europe in the months to come. This wasn't just an Irish problem – it spanned across England, Greece, France and beyond.
The most important ingredient in food is trust, and once consumers lose that, it takes a long time to get it back. I think the industry has learned its lesson – stringent structures are in place to make sure it can't happen again: all meat products now have to have a certificate of authenticity, for a start. I certainly think and hope that something like this will not be repeated, at least in my lifetime.
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