Irish food authorities have announced that a Polish company is responsible for the supplying horse meat for burgers, a scandal which forced Irish and UK supermarkets to recall nearly 10 million beef burgers earlier this month.
The latest tests showed high levels of equine DNA in imported raw material - about 20% horse DNA content relative to beef.
Earlier this month, an FSAI study found that beef burgers sold in several supermarkets chains in Ireland and the UK contained horse meat. In response, several retailers withdrew all implicated batches from sale.
Beef burgers that contained horse DNA were produced at two processing facilities in Ireland - Liffey Meats and Silvercrest Foods, Ireland, and one processing facility in UK - Dalepak Hambleton.
Commenting on the new development, Irish agriculture minister Simon Coveney said that the Polish ingredient used by Silvercrest had about 20% of equine DNA and had been supplied to the plant for nearly a year.
"The current findings of the official investigation do not show any evidence that the company Silvercrest deliberately used horse meat in their production process," Coveney added.
