APA News
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Curry and pizza among failed Scottish meat tests
Gary Walker - Head of Glasgow Scientific Services
About 8% of meat tested in Scotland in 2017 was found to contain the DNA of an animal not listed on the labelling, figures obtained by the BBC suggest.
The National Farmers’ Union Scotland said that in some cases the data showed “clear examples of food fraud”. Processed foods such as Indian-style lamb dishes, kebabs and sausages were among the dishes found to be at fault. In a number of cases, pizza toppings that were supposed to be ham were identified as chicken or turkey.
Information collected by Food Standards Scotland (FSS) showed that 631 tests were carried out last year. It said 48 of them were “contaminated” with the meat of animal that either was not on the label or menu description. The samples, tested randomly, were taken from restaurants, supermarkets and manufacturers. The FSS would not reveal the names of the premises or even the type of business they operated.
On the face of it the figures suggest the rate of contamination in Scotland is not as high as in the rest of the UK where tests in 2017 found that as much as a fifth of meat samples had been misrepresented in this way.
The full BBC news story can be accessed via the embedded hyperlink above. An excerpt from a BBC Radio Scotland new item is also attached.
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