Burger King announced Thursday it has dropped an Irish supplier tied to a horsemeat scandal in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Reuters reported.
The British food industry has been reeling since last week when tests conducted by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, in conjunction with Britain's Food Standards Agency, found that beef burgers sold by grocers across the UK and Ireland contained at least trace amounts of horse DNA, according to
the BBC.
ABP Foods said the source of the contamination was a beef-based product bought from two third-party suppliers outside of Ireland. A total of 27 burger products were analyzed during the food officials' investigation, with 10 of them containing traces of horse DNA and 23 containing pig DNA, according to the BBC.
Though food safety experts say horsemeat poses no health risks to consumers, the discovery raised concerns about the food supply chain and tracing the source of meat ingredients, Reuters reported.
The contaminated burgers were processed at three different plants, including Silvercrest Foods, a subsidiary of ABP Food Group, one of the suppliers for Burger King locations in the UK and Ireland.
On its website, the fast-food chain said it had decided to replace all Silvercrest products in Britain and Ireland with products from another approved Burger King supplier.
"This is a voluntary and precautionary measure," Burger King said. "We are working diligently to identify suppliers that can produce 100 percent pure Irish and British beef products that meet our high quality standards."
The British mass-selling Sun newspaper carried the Burger King announcement on its front page on Thursday with the headline "Shergar King," in reference to a famous racehorse that was kidnapped and never seen again in 1983.
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