Irish food safety testers 'got into fraudsters' heads' to uncover horsemeat scandal

on 26/02/2013 11:10:32

The Head of the Food Safety Authority has said he is amazed at the breadth of the worldwide horsemeat scandal his organisation uncovered.

Yesterday, Swedish furniture giant Ikea withdrew meatballs from sale in Ireland, and in at least 14 other European countries after the discovery of horsemeat in the product by Czech authorities.

The FSAI carries out surveillance of the food supply continuously, and uncovered horse DNA in burgers on sale in a number of Irish supermarkets after they tried to "think like a criminal".

CEO of the FSAI professor Alan Reilly said: "If you were to commit a fraud, the type of products you'd produce would be meat wrapped up in pastry (or) with a potato topping (or) in a burger where everything is minced up and the consumer hasn't a clue what they're getting.

"(People) rely on such products to be labelled correctly.

"So, you nearly had to get into the head of people who wanted to commit fraud."