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Horsemeat beef burgers 'no risk to the public'

The head of the food safety authority of Ireland said the presence of horsemeat in a number of beef burgers sold in the UK and Ireland posed "no risk to the public."

The beef burger products which tested positive for horse DNA were produced by two processing plants (Liffey Meats and Silvercrest Foods) in Ireland and one plant (Dalepak Hambleton) in the UK. Both are sold across the UK.

Professor Alan Reilly said:

The products we have identified as containing horse DNA and/or pig DNA do not pose any food safety risk and consumers should not be worried.

In Ireland, it is not in our culture to eat horsemeat and therefore, we do not expect to find it in a burger. Likewise, for some religious groups or people who abstain from eating pig meat, the presence of traces of pig DNA is unacceptable.