UK & World News
- 24 January 2013, 10:36
Burger King Dumps Products Over Horsemeat Row
Burger King is dumping thousands of beefburgers from the supplier at the centre of the horsemeat scandal - despite insisting its food was not contaminated.
Staff have been ordered to box up Whoppers and Angus burgers and ensure they are not sold to customers.
The fast-food giant was bitten by the controversy last week after tests showed the Silvercrest meat processing plant in Ireland and another site in Yorkshire had supplied burgers with traces of equine DNA to supermarkets.
Several supermarkets took burgers off the shelves, but Burger King said last Thursday it would not be following suit.
By the weekend its restaurant managers were being ordered to remove all Silvercrest burgers.
Burger King has now said it is switching to a different supplier for its British and Irish restaurants as a "voluntary and precautionary measure".
The ABP Food Group, one of Europe's biggest suppliers and processors, stopped work at its Silvercrest plant in Co Monaghan after new tests last week revealed contamination in frozen burgers.
But ABP has insisted that meat for Burger King was stored and processed separately and there is no evidence that its burgers are affected.
Burger King said the withdrawal could lead to shortages of burgers in its restaurants.
It said: "We apologise to our guests for any inconvenience. However, we want to let them know that they can trust us to serve only the highest quality products.
"We take this matter seriously and will continue with our investigations to determine how this situation occurred and what lessons can be learned."
Ten million burgers have been removed from supermarkets across Ireland and the UK as a result of the scandal.
Tesco took out full-page adverts in a number of newspapers apologising for selling the contaminated beefburgers, and Aldi, Lidl and Iceland also withdrew burgers after they were found to contain horsemeat, which is safe to eat.
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.
Update:
Hello, regular commenting on Orange News and Sport pages closes on Thursday 30 May 2013. We will continue to provide a commenting facility on major news and sport events on orangeworld.co.uk. Contact us via http://oran.ge/OWfeedback if you have any further questions. Thanks.
what do you think?
ListenToTeacher
You want it your way at BK you got it...
marc H
so whats wrong with horse meat? its as tasty as beef. If anyone says its because they are cute thats sad because they will eat lamb and a lamb is cuter than a nag. With half the world starving ask them if they wud eat horsemeat.
Angharad Fennell
I think it's more the fact we should be told what we are eating. If people want to eat horse let them. But we have a right to make a choice. And no I don't eat lamb cause they are cute :)
Rob Unstable
Once a horse lamb pig or anything is minced up... theres nothing cute about it lol
john byrne
What a waste of perfectly good food. Hope its sent to someone who will use it, with full knowledge that it may contain horse meat of course. Homeless shelters etc woud be more than happy im sure.
Angharad Fennell
That's a good point. It could be given to places where, as long as it is labeled that it may contain traces of equine then they have the choice of whether to eat it or not.
john byrne
I love 2 people don't like feeding the homeless if they know whats in the burgers. Would they sooner they ended up in landfill? By not eating the meat it wont make the little animals any less dead!
PinkyLilac
Nothing wrong with horse meat like marc said we eat lamb.When I lived in france every friday at my god parents had what I thought was dinosaur meat which was sooo yummy!One day they told me I had infact been eating horse...I was 6 :o)
Angharad Fennell
I don't eat lamb. Too cute watching them play together. People should however be told what is in food. It's ok saying oh horse I tasty, it may be, but where do we draw the line about what they are hiding in our food?
PinkyLilac
Totally agree :o) Even at such a young age wasn't impressed by what I'd really been eating :o/ These days I'm always checking packaging and I'm extra cautious with processed food.What next?Dog meat? :o/
Micheal Booth
If people ate more fresh food...... made their own burgers etc This would be even less of an issue that it has been blown into!
Paul Croxton
Nowt wrong with horsemeat
PinkyLilac
Micheal I do make my own burgers beef and turkey ones and also make an amazing chilly con carne :oD
Angharad Fennell
Lol if I was given horse meat as a child I probably would have been scarred for life. I was very much a my little pony girl
PinkyLilac
Ang I'm 31 now and haven't forgoten lol :o/
Angharad Fennell
Such a parent thing to do tho. Like when you tell a child turkey is chicken....horse is beef....when will it end! If I did that to my daughter she wouldn't speak to me for a day....but then think of the peace...
Angharad Fennell
They are making a big deal out of the fact there was equine traces in these burgers. Pork was also found. Some people don't eat pork for strict religious reasons so I think that is more angering. We should know what's in our food. I appreciate pork and horse are edible but we have a right to know what we are eating and feeding our children. We always joke that there could be anything in the cheaper end products, it's not really a joke now to some people.
Micheal Booth
God is supposed to be all forgiving, so what difference does it make if Pork was unknowingly ingested? I'm sure God will pay it no mind...
Angharad Fennell
I'm not religious sorry mate but those who are should have their right respected
Micheal Booth
Agreed but the burger wasn't contaminated on purpose. It was a mistake. Will God strike them down for unknowingly eating Pork as a result of an accident?
Angharad Fennell
Who knows? It's to do with them being an unclean animal I think. If they are true to their religion and are strict about it like some are, I'm sure it probably caused some distress. However, I doubt many of them bought cheap burgers anyway. Can't see it being high on their food shop list.
t.bulgin
Not the most appetising burger I have ever seen. I was goona get a macds tonight but I think I'll get a kfc now. Hopefully they are not filling it out with parrot or eagle.
PinkyLilac
Have u heard about that student in colchester essex who cut open he's kfc only to find was infact a chicken brain?Google it :o/
Nat_j2b
If that was a chicken brain then it must have been one heck of a big chicken!
Jasmin Louise
KFC? They secretly use beef! I think you'll be safe with fish n chips and mushy peas :)
Peter Coates
Family up our road eat cat burgers.
sunshine
Wouldn't bother me in the least
matthew james
Time the British public wised up on the likes of Tesco, Asda , Iceland. Aldi etc.. They cannot be trusted on quality. ask if their 'steak' and beef joints comes from knackered old milking cows before you buy. Quality beef/steaks come from steers . Beware of chicken being sold as fresh when they are used up battery hens. I found Tesco selling 2 year out of date bottled water and imported polish tomatoes during UK's prolific tomato growing season. They are interested only in profit .Better to eat less, and pay a little more from trustworthy supermarkets and stay healthy.
field_pete
I get fed up with people moaning about the food chain, suppliers are guilty of this, stores are guilty of that. If you don't like it, grow it or catch it yourself, and the side effect of that is that you'll soon lose some weight.
Dave Smith
Jesus christ, I'll eat it. Who cares? It's a BETTER meat.
Mark Wood
Not really worried about horse meat, but do you really have to bring Jesus Christ into it?? May not mean much to you - but it does to millions of others..
arthur ruddock
Love the publics open mindedness to horse meat...i agree,but out of interest does this extend to dog meat or cat meat ..after all the shelters are full to the brim of them.
Angharad Fennell
Well quite. How long till hot dogs are.....
Phillip Holland
This hardly "Burgers belief" eat what you like...lol
Frank McGreal
I seem to recall some time ago that one brand of burger was proudly promoting its product with the slogan "our Hamburgers are 100% beef".! (presumably not 100% ham then?!)
Vladtheinhaler .
You recall wrong. It was actually "our burgers are 100% beef", no mention of ham.
John Dodsworth
They will be saying hay and grass is ok to eat next ?
Adrian Wagstaff
Aha! Well, see, the thing is several years ago, in 1990, when we first moved to this area, a bald man was on the television who only ever ate the grass from his garden. Dunno if it was true or not but it was on the news on the television.
Fred Spoons
when I wuz a boy of your age, 'orse meat was seen as a treat! You should try whale meat with dried eggs!
sunshine
The problem here is not the horse meat, but the suppliers not telling Tesco, Burger King etc. that it was in tehir products. There is absolutely nothing wrong in eating horse meat per se
Angharad Fennell
Nope so long as people know then they can make a choice as to whether they want to eat it or not. I think most people probably would turn a blind eye to equine traces on an ingredient list. I wouldn't choose to eat it myself but clearly a lot of people on this forum are well up for tucking into black beauty :)
executecodered
It's not a patch on dog meat.
Fred Spoons
Quite right, ask any Chinese person.
arthur ruddock
The problem i have with it is that horse passport system is so corrupt it is unreal. Horses which have had been administered certain (very common drugs) should be signed out of the food chain via the passport system..stamped by a vet to make sure they do not ensure enter the food chain. This seldom happens and evan if it did it is alarmingly easy to aquire a false passport . The whole system relies havily on every single horse owner/trader being totally honest. There is a lot of sorting out to be done before horses meet the same standards as other farm animals bred for meat.
stevie may
10:44am on 24/1/2013
Horsemeat in our burgers? Next time your in a burgerbar and they ask "What do you want on your burger?" Tell them £5 each way
Mark Wood
1:59pm on 24/1/2013
Well you made me laugh anyway Stevie. Ignore the thumbs down!
Jennie Morris
3:31pm on 24/1/2013
"Note to self" Dont read Stevie May's witty comments when drinking coffee unless you want to choke and have coffee in your lungs!