Burger King Admits to Horse Meat Scandal

After traces of horse meat were found in beef patties coming from an Irish plant, Burger King announced that the fast food giant has broken ties with meat manufacturer Silvercrest Foods.  The announcement was made on Thursday, according to the Irish Times.

Burger King says horse meat never reached its customers. However, the same supplier sold horse-meat-tainted patties to European grocery chains, the Irish Times reports:

The Co-operative Group announced yesterday that independent tests of its own-brand burgers supplied by Silvercrest had found traces of less than 1 per cent horse DNA in three samples and 17.7 per cent in one sample. Tesco had already been found to have been supplied with a burger which was 29 per cent horse meat.

The fast food chain said:

Four samples recently taken from the Silvercrest plant have shown the presence of very small trace levels of equine DNA. This product was never sold to our restaurants.

Burger King’s global vice president Diego Beamonte issued a statement apologizing for the discovery:

We are deeply troubled by the finings of our investigation and apologize to our guests, who trust us to source only the highest quality 100 percent beef burgers.

Silvercrest Foods has operated in various European countries including England, Ireland and Denmark.

The Irish Food Safety Authority ruled that the horse meat doesn’t pose a health risk — but that’s a small consolation for many customers.