APA News

  • Meat testing: A fifth of samples reveal unspecified animals' DNA



    A freedom of information request to the Food Standards Agency for the 2017 calendar year yielded 665 results for meat speciation from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Of these 145 were partly or wholly made up of unspecified meat. Seventy-three of the contaminated samples came from retailers - including three supermarkets. A further 50 came from restaurants, while 22 originated from manufacturing or food processing plants.The full article is available on the BBC News Website

    However, a clear picture of the wider food industry is not readily available as less than half of local authorities actually submitted meat sampling data to the United Kingdom’s Food Surveillance System in 2017. The BBC’s request did not ask for data on Scotland where food sampling rates are generally higher.

    Some councils may have focused their food testing priorities “in areas other than meat substitution”, the FSA said - adding that others may have carried out tests later in the financial year. The FSA spokesperson did not appear to realise that the 2017 calendar year covered the latter part of the 2016-17 financial year.