The Food Standards Agency of Ireland has implicated Dutch suppliers as the suspected cause of the contaminated beef burgers which contained horse meat sold in UK supermarkets.
Irish officials have asked their Dutch counterparts to investigate “several companies” in connection with the case believing the suppliers added the horse meat as “filler” to the products.
Horse meat was found in burgers being sold in Dunnes, Aldi and Lidl in Ireland and Iceland and Tesco in the UK, it was revealed last week.
Dutch suppliers may have passed off the meat, potentially imported to Europe from Brazil or Argentina, as beef as it is up to four times cheaper, The Telegraph reported.
One of the UK companies which supplied Iceland, Dalepak Hambleton, has begun producing burgers again however Silvercrest, the Irish company which supplied burgers containing 29% horse meat to Tesco, stopped production on Thursday.
Irish agriculture minister Simon Coveney said one of the Dutch suppliers implicated also supplied Liffey Meats.
Tesco has edited its latest television advertisement because it was due to include images of a horse.
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