“You have probably read or heard that we have had a serious problem with three frozen beef burger products that we sell in stores in the UK and Ireland.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has told us that a number of products they have recently tested from one of our suppliers contained horsemeat.
While the FSAI has said that the products pose no risk to public health, we appreciate that, like us, our customers will find this absolutely unacceptable.
The products in our stores were Tesco Everyday Value 8 x Frozen Beef Burgers (397g), Tesco 4 x Frozen Beef Quarter Pounders (454g) and a branded product, Flamehouse Frozen Chargrilled Quarter Pounders.
We have immediately withdrawn from sale all products from the supplier in question, from all our stores and online.
If you have any of these products at home, you can take them back to any of our stores at any time and get a full refund. You will not need a receipt and you can just bring back the packaging.
We and our supplier have let you down and we apologise.
If you have any concerns, you can find out how to contact us at the bottom of this page, or go to any of our customer service desks in-store, or ask to speak to your local Store Manager.
So here’s our promise. We will find out exactly what happened and, when we do, we’ll come back and tell you.
And we will work harder than ever with all our suppliers to make sure this never happens again.”
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), which carried out the tests, said that the burgers containing horse DNA were produced in two plants in Ireland and one in the UK. Horse meat was found to account for about 29% of the meat in Tesco Everyday Value Beef Burgers.
Tesco’s stock market value fell £300 million (1.1%) on a day when the FTSE index declined by 0.5%.
