Horsemeat feared in 50,000 tonnes of Dutch beef

A SMALL number of UK businesses may have received products from a Dutch company which supplied some 50,000 tonnes of beef that could have contained horsemeat.

Dutch authorities announced yesterday the meat is being recalled, where possible.

The Food Standards Agency said there was no reason to suggest there was a safety issue.

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It was contacting firms in the UK “as a matter of urgency” to determine if they had received products from the Dutch company.

The 50,000 tonnes of meat has been distributed since January 2011 across 16 countries in Europe.

The Dutch said the meat was being recalled because its exact source could not be established.

The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority said that around 370 different companies around Europe and 130 more in the Netherlands were affected by the recall because they bought meat from two Dutch trading companies – wholesalers Wiljo Import en Export BV and Vleesgroothandel Willy Selton.

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It said because the exact source of the meat cannot be traced “its safety cannot be guaranteed” but they had “no concrete indications that there is a risk to public health”.

Due to the lapse of time, a lot of the meat “may already have been consumed”.

The latest twist in the horsemeat saga came after Leeds-based supermarket chain Asda yesterday said it acted “immediately, and in the most high profile way possible” to alert shoppers that a veterinary drug known as bute had been detected in a corned beef product, initially withdrawn from sale more than a month ago because it contained horsemeat.

Shadow Environment Secretary Mary Creagh said the discovery was “worrying”.

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She added: “This product was withdrawn from sale on March 8 yet has only been formally recalled now, after testing positive for bute, meaning people could have unwittingly been eating meat containing this drug for the last month.”