Tag Archives: Horsemeat Scandal

GoodmanThe Red Lion abattoir in Cheshire(Larry Goodman’s ABP purchased meat from Selten foods, sourced by Norwest Foods, set up by Ray McSharry Jnr, who had previously worked for Goodman. The meat came from an abbatoir in the UK, above, owned by the Turner family, of Dundalk cargo handling fame.)

Ten months after the horsemeat scandal came to light, investigative journalist Felicity Lawrence, of The Guardian, reports that details of how horsemeat came into the British and Irish food chain are still being kept from the public.

From her report:

“A Guardian investigation has unpicked one strand of this complex supply chain. Behind beef products sold by famous high-street names we have uncovered a labyrinth of murky meat brokerage that stretches across borders, and takes in drug and horse smuggling, animal welfare abuses, and one of Europe’s richest beef tycoons.

At one point in the chain, there is testimony from migrant workers paid cash in hand to process defrosted meat that was “green” and years old. The Guardian has established that some meat from the plant was sent via a trader to the leading European supplier that manufactured adulterated beefburgers sold in several high street stores.

The Tesco burgers and those at Burger King, Co-op and Aldi that also tested positive for horse DNA were all made by the ABP group in its Silvercrest factory, in the border area of Ireland. ABP – the initials derive from Anglo-Irish Beef Processors – is the leading processor of cattle in Europe.

…Larry Goodman’s ABP has blamed the adulteration in its chain on rogue managers at the Silvercrest site in County Monaghan, who, without the knowledge of head office, were buying in frozen meat for burger-making from traders who were not on the list of suppliers approved by its customers.

…The company told us meat from Selten was sourced for ABP not directly but on occasion by a Cheshire-based trading company called Norwest Foods.

That company was set up by Ray MacSharry Jr, son of the former Irish agriculture minister and European commissioner and, the Guardian has established, a former employee of Goodman. Norwest’s business interests include an abattoir in Spain, an office in Poland and an animal feed business in Ireland.

Last month both companies announced that they had reached a confidential financial settlement, and Norwest apologised for selling horsemeat to ABP Silvercrest unwittingly. ABP refused to answer questions about where the Selten meat had ended up.

So meat from Selten ended up at ABP for making burgers, but what were Selten’s sources? The Guardian has managed to follow a trail from Selten’s Dutch factory back to a key source of its horsemeat in the UK. Selten took deliveries from a Cheshire-based slaughterhouse known as Red Lion. It is owned by the Turner family, who slaughter and cut horsemeat and who own a cargo handling company in Dundalk, Ireland.

 

More here and Video: Food fraud: how beef and horsemeat became mixed is still unclear (Felicity Lawrence, The Guardian)

5/2/2013 Professor Alan Reilly at Oireachtas Heari (L-R) Ray Ellard, Consumer Director of FSAI, Prof Alan Reilly FSAI Chief Executive.

Can we do NOTHING right?

Many people were annoyed that “the Paddies” uncovered the horse meat scandal that turned out to be a case of massive international food fraud, Ray Ellard, consumer production director of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland said yesterday. He said it was felt, particularly in Britain, that the authority was acting on information, but it was just doing its job.

“There was a massive international food fraud going on and Ireland found it and that’s annoyed a lot of people, that the Paddies found it,” he said. “I’m sorry to say that, but that’s the truth of it.” Mr Ellard and the Food Safety Authority’s chief executive, Prof Alan Reilly, recently encountered hostile questioning from MPs when they met the Westminster committee on the environment, food and rural affairs. MPs repeatedly insisted that the Food Safety Authority was acting on a tip-off when it tested for horse meat and were critical of the fact that no one has yet been prosecuted for their role in the horse meat scandal. Prof Reilly said he was shocked and dismayed at the aggressive nature of the questioning and the political point-scoring.

He said it was a case of “blame the Irish” for uncovering the fraud.

 

Annoyance that ‘the Paddies’ uncovered horse meat scandal, conference told (Alison Healy, Irish Times)

(Mark Stedman / Photocall Ireland)

Screen Shot 2013-03-05 at 07.59.54Simon Coveney (centre right) at the opening of the APB foods China office in Bejing last April with Paul Finnerty, chief executive of APB Foods (right).

Paul Finnerty, the chief executive of [Larry] Goodman’s ABP food group, will [today] give evidence to MPs on the environment, food and rural affairs committee – inquiring into the horsemeat scandal – after it emerged that the company supplied Tesco with beefburgers that turned out to be 29% horse.

An ABP factory in Tipperary supplied the meat that was made into fresh beef bolognese sauce for Asda that the supermarket found to contain 5% horse. ABP’s Scottish factory also supplied beef meatballs to Waitrose that the retailer found had up to 30% undeclared pork.

Today’s Irish government is also facing criticism that it was too slow to inform others and had remained close to its beef industry.

Britain’s environment secretary, Owen Paterson, has said his current Irish counterpart, Simon Coveney, only told the UK of the problem in January, rather than when it first became aware of it in November. Coveney’s brother Patrick is chief executive of Greencore, an Irish food processor that made the Asda bolognese sauce found to contain 5% horse. Greencore, however, says its own tests on the same beef batch came up negative for horse DNA.

Horsemeat Scandal: Chief Of Irish Beef Company To Face MPs (Felicity Lawrence, Guardian)

(APB Foods)