Charges may follow in meat scandal

But environment minister David Heath said standards were generally very high in the British food industry and backed the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) risk-based checking system.

Answering an urgent question from Labour’s shadow environment secretary Mary Creagh in the Commons, Mr Heath acknowledged the seriousness of the discovery.

He said: “It is very important neither you, nor anyone else in this House, talks down the British food industry at a time when the standards in that industry are of a very high level.

“Because something has been discovered in Ireland, which is serious, which may lead to criminal proceedings, does not undermine the very serious efforts which are taken by retailers, by processors and by producers in this country to ensure traceability and ensure standards of food that are available to consumers.”

Supermarket giant Tesco has placed full-page adverts in a number of national newspapers apologising to customers for selling beef-burgers containing horse meat.

The apology came as a reported £300m was wiped off Tesco’s stock market value.

Aldi, Lidl and Iceland have also withdrawn frozen beefburgers from their shelves after they were found to be contaminated with horse meat.

Sainsbury’s, Asda and the Co-op later withdrew some frozen products but stressed that the move was “purely precautionary” and they had not been found to be selling contaminated food.

Tesco promised refunds to customers who had bought the contaminated products, which it identified as Tesco Everyday Value 8 x Frozen Beef Burgers (397g), Tesco 4 x Frozen Beef Quarter Pounders (454g), and a branded product, Flamehouse Frozen Chargrilled Quarter Pounders.

In the advertisement, entitled ‘We apologise’, Tesco says: “While the FSAI (Food Safety Authority of Ireland) has said that the products pose no risk to public health, we appreciate that, like us, our customers will find this absolutely unacceptable.”

It continues: “We have immediately withdrawn from sale all products from the supplier in question, from all our stores and online... We and our supplier have let you down and we apologise.”

Tesco’s apology came as a food expert claimed horse meat could have been in beefburgers for years, but remained undetected because of insufficient food regulation.

The FSA said it would consider taking legal action against companies at the centre of the scandal.