Drug horsemeat sold for food to France
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) admitted that five horses which tested positive for the veterinary drug phenylbutazone – also known as bute – had been exported to France for food last year.
The FSA was forced to issue a statement revealing it had identified eight cases where horses tested positive for phenylbutazone, of which five were exported for the food chain. None of the meat was destined for the UK.
The statement followed shadow environmental secretary Mary Creagh’s claims that several UK-slaughtered horses had contained phenylbutazone – which she added was a carcinogen.
“I am in receipt of evidence showing that several horses slaughtered in UK abattoirs last year tested positive for phenylbutazone, or bute, a drug that causes cancer in humans and is banned from the human food chain. It is possible that those animals entered the human food chain.”
The FSA later confirmed that is was extremely rare that people have an adverse reaction to phenylbutazone.