2013 Horse Meat Scandal

2013 Horse Meat Scandal

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Overview

2013 Horse Burger Scandal refers to the discovery of horse DNA in beef sold at several supermarkets in Ireland and Great Britain which became an international controversy after it was made public in January 2013.

Background

On January 15th, 2013, The Irish Times[1] published an article reporting that significant traces of horse and pig DNA had been found by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) in beef burgers sold in several Irish and British supermarket chains, including Tesco, Asda, Dunnes Stores, Lidl, Aldi and Iceland. The news came as a shock to many Irish and British residents, as horse meat is typically not consumed by the local populace.


Results of Burgers Analysed Onion (10%), wheat Flour Water, Beef Fat, Soya Protein Isolate, Salt, Onion Powder Yeast Sugar, Barley Malt Extract, Garlic Powder, White Pepper Extract, Celery Tesco Everyday Value Tesco Beef Burgers Positive 29.1% 1 15:35 12290 End Oct 13 E565 EC 63% Positive Onion Extract Onion (9%), Beef Fat, Wheat |Flour, Salt, Onion Powder, Positive 0.3% Oakhurst Beef Burgers Aldi 1 19:41 12288 End Oct 13IES65 EC 78% Positive rst Dextrose, Yeast Extract, Spices (Contains Celery) Onion Extract Onion (10%), Rusk (Wheat Flour, Salt), Water, Seasoning (Isolated Soya Protein, Rusk, Onion Powder, Spice Extracts (Celery, Pepper), Potassium Chloride, Onion Flavouring Yeast, Sugar, Malt Extract, Garlic Powder). Beef Fat St Bernard Beef Burgers Positive eLOQ Dunnes Stores 122:10 12299 End Oct 13 IE S65 EC 63% Positive Onion (9%), Rusk (Wheat Flour, Salt), Salt, Potato Starch, Onion Powder Preservative: Sodium Sulphite; Spice Extract, Flavourings (contain Celery Moordale Beef Burgers Positive <LOQ Lidl Moordale 2255 06:08 End Mar 14 IE 325 EC 81% Positive Onion Extract Seasoning (5%) (Dextrose, Breadcrumbs (Wheat Flour, Water, Yeast), Salt, Spices, Lactose, Potato Starch, Oat Flakes, Wheat Flour Preservative: Sodium Supervalu Quarter Supervalu Pounder Beef Burgers INT 105L2302 13.05 07-Nov-12 IE 329 EC 95% Positive Negative

Notable Developments

Online Reaction

On January 15th, 2013, Redditor MilkMan87 submitted a post about the FSAI findings to the /r/worldnews[13] subreddit. Within two days, the post received over 12,000 up votes and 3,000 comments. On the following day, Redditor darraghd submitted a photograph to the /r/ireland[14] subreddit, claiming that the Irish burger company Paddy Power was giving away free “horse burgers” in Dublin. Also on January 16th, jokes about the news story began appearing on Twitter with the hashtags “#horseburger,” “#horseburgergate” and “#horsepun,” including one tweeted by British politician John Prescott.


On January 17th, Redditor lollipopvampire submitted a rage comic to the f7u12[15] subreddit, which features Derpina coming to the realization that she may have eaten horse meat from the Tesco supermarket (shown below). Within 8 hours, the post received over 65 up votes and 10 comments.


Just me, reading the news on my computer. (I live in England) Oh, says here that horse meat has been found in Tesco burgers I might have eaten horse.. . o e

News Media Coverage

On January 15th, several news sites published articles about the story, including The Independent,[1] The Mirror,[3]The Huffington Post,[4] Bloomberg,[5] The BBC[6] and The Guardian.[7] The following day, articles about the horse burgers were published in The Examiner,[8] The Sun[12] and Time.[11] Also on January 16th, Inside Ireland[9] reported that Irish politicians were calling for mandatory DNA tracing of processed meat products across Europe. Meanwhile, the Telegraph[10] noted that the Tesco supermarket shares had fallen £300 million.

Findus

On 7 February 2013, Findus announced that in a sample of 18 beef lasagne products which it tested, 11 contained between 60% and 100% horse meat. The source of the horse meat was a third party supplier of Comigel, the producer of the lasagne. This has been the subject of talk currently in the British news and Findus have withdrawn their stock and on the 8th February, they had published a public apology on their website, also stating that they offer refunds for products purchased.[17]

Example of internet reception:



Notable Examples


TESCO. NOW DOING TESCO CONVENIENCE ROLLEY TAKEAWAY BURGERS! MY LOVELY HORSB BURGER quickmeme.com TESCO my LiTTLE BURGER So hungry you could eat a horse? We've got you covered TESCO Eny ie hotps TESCO extra HOLDSTILL LET'S MAKE A BURGER

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External References

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