Burger King reveals its burgers were contaminated in horsemeat scandal

Burger King has revealed that some of its burgers were contaminated in the horsemeat scare, as the tainted food crisis threatened to undermine the confidence of consumers, and major retailers tried to protect their reputations.

The fast food company, whose products were not tested in the food standards checks by Irish authorities that sparked the furore earlier this month, moved production from the Silvercrest plant in Ireland to Germany and Italy as a precaution. On Thursday night it said test results at the plant revealed "very small trace levels" of horse DNA in its products, but burgers taken from restaurants had tested negative.

As governments in Ireland, the UK and Poland, where a supplier used by Silvercrest for a year is thought be the source of the contamination, continued their investigations, Burger King admitted that, contrary to previous assurances made to it by Silvercrest, it too had now been linked to the scandal. Authorities insist there is no health danger to consumers.

In another potentially serious development, Aldi UK became the first major retailer to suspend its contract with a British plant, Dalepak Hambleton in North Yorkshire, which, like Silvercrest, is part of the ABP Food Group, pending further investigations into why three of nine newly tested burger samples had traces of horse and pork DNA. The products were from stock withdrawn in recent weeks as a precaution but made since October, the company said.

The Aldi announcement came a week after tests at Dalepak for ABP and the UK Food Standards Agency had come back negative for horse DNA. The FSA has also previously suggested that its investigations into Dalepak were concentrating on events before October.

Aldi in Ireland has terminated its contract with the Silvercrest plant in County Monaghan, Ireland, where Burger King, Tesco, the Co-op and Asda have all pulled out. Burger King said yesterday that new tests on burgers made at Silvercrest had shown traces of horse DNA.

Burger King said: "Our independent DNA test results on product taken from restaurants were negative for any equine DNA. However, four samples recently taken from the Silvercrest plant have shown the presence of very small trace levels of equine DNA. Within the last 36 hours, we have established that Silvercrest used a small percentage of beef imported from a non-approved supplier in Poland. They promised to deliver 100% British and Irish beef patties and have not done so. This is a clear violation of our specifications, and we have terminated our relationship with them."

Diego Beamonte, vice-president for global quality at Burger King Corporation, said the company was "deeply troubled by the findings of our investigation and apologise to our guests, who trust us to source only the highest quality 100% beef burgers. Our supplier has failed us and in turn we have failed you".

All the major supermarkets, including those not implicated in test results by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland published on January 15 which started the scare, withdrew from sale products made at the two ABP plants and Liffey Meats as a precaution.

But Waitrose, which has since restocked, and Sainsbury's, which both use Dalepak, never suspended their contracts there. Aldi UK said one sample of three of its Oakhurst Beef Quarter Pounders had been found to be o.1% pork and 0.1% equine DNA. One Frozen Oakhurst Beefburger 16 pack showed 0.1% equine trace and a similar amount of pig was found in a Specially Selected Aberdeen Angus Quarter Pounder. These were all from stock withdrawn from sale but made since October. A spokesman for Aldi said: "We are deeply angry and feel let down by our supplier and we are pursuing more tests until we are certain that we understand how the production line was contaminated."

more here: Guardian