MONAGHAN MEAT PROCESSING company Rangeland Foods is withdrawing some of its beef burgers after batches tested positive in the UK for between 5 per cent and 30 per cent horsemeat.
The company said it has contacted a number of its customer to alert them that the burgers were produced by Rangeland in September 2012 using beef supplied from Poland.
The burgers were produced for the catering and wholesale sectors and were distributed across Ireland, the UK, Spain, France, Germany and The Netherlands.
In a statement issued this afternoon, the company said:
Rangeland Foods chose to alert their customers yesterday that burgers produced in September 2012 had tested positive for equine DNA in a small number of cases. The burger product was specifically produced for the UK market and was made to a specification for EU beef from EU approved suppliers.
Rangeland Foods has since taken the decision to withdraw all of their hitherto untested produce made from meat of Polish origin from the food chain, and that process is underway.
A food alert has been issued for Ireland by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, which said it will notify the European Commission about the exported product.
“Rangeland Foods has confirmed to the FSAI that it has notified its suppliers that would have received these implicated products and a withdrawal is taking place,” the FSAI said in a statement.
As is the protocol in food withdrawals, if these suppliers have subsequently traded these products onwards to other food businesses, they are compelled to notify them to ensure that a swift withdrawal is undertaken across the market.
The FSAI said it will work with Rangeland Foods to ensure all implicated product is removed from the market.
Ten days ago the company briefly suspended production after horse DNA was found in an ingredient imported from Poland. The company said at the time that the ingredient was never used in any products.
Rangeland recommenced production at the plant last Thursday and said that it had been the victim of fraud.
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