EC horsemeat tests reveal 5% horse DNA contamination
European Commission tests costing £2.15M revealed horse DNA in 5% of meat products tested at random across the EU’s 27 Member States.
The results ̶ published on April 16 ̶ revealed the banned veterinary drug phenylbutazone, or bute, was found in 0.5% of horsemeat tested.
The EU commissioner for health and consumers Tonio Borg said the results confirmed that the horsemeat crisis was “a matter of food fraud and not food safety”.
Member States conducted 4,144 tests for the presence of horsemeat, of which 193 or 4.66% revealed horse DNA. Of the 3,115 tests for bute, 16 or 0.51% proved positive.