Food sales at supermarket giant Tesco have seen a fall over the past three months due to the horsemeat scandal.
"A small but discernible impact on frozen and chilled convenience food sales due to the customer response to equine DNA being detected in four products" said chief executive Philip Clarke.
"We have set out our plans to put customers back at the heart of the way we do business, and this is particularly evident in our recent initiatives on price and on food trust."
In March, Clarke pledged to sell meat from sources 'closer to home.'
Clarke said Tesco introduced new testing processes in light of recent concerns from farming groups and consumers.
From July, he said, all chicken sold in its stores would be from British farms.
The retailer also announced its ambitions to build partnerships, become more transparent and to make 'real changes to the way Tesco source' its meat products.
Like-for-like UK sales, excluding petrol and VAT, dropped by 1% during the 13 weeks ending 25 May 2013.
"Since January this year we have completed nearly 1,500 tests on our own-brand meat ranges, which identified four frozen beef products contaminated by equine DNA. The four products were withdrawn, reformulated and reintroduced, with new suppliers. We have also accelerated our work with all of our suppliers to ensure that our market-leading technical processes and specifications can enable customers to place a renewed level of trust in our entire product range" the retailer said.
NFU President Peter Kendall said: "We recognise the significance of Tesco's commitments and will be working closely with its team to ensure that the retailer's sentiments and latest commitments deliver real value to the sustainability of the UK farming industry.
"What we want to see is measurable changes on sourcing, longer term commitments and improved relationships. The meeting was a first step in working towards these goals and it showed clear signs that Tesco wants to build partnerships.
"There is a lot of work to be done and the NFU will be working to help Tesco deliver."
At the Food Standards Agency open Board meeting, Professor Pat Troop presented the key findings of her review of the Agency’s handling of the adulteration of processed beef products with horse and pig meat and DNA. The final report will be published at the end of this month on the FSA website.
Overall, Professor Troop said the incident was very unusual in both its scale and profile. In carrying out her review, she spoke to FSA staff, Government departments and Ministers, members of the food industry (both trade bodies and retailers), local authority bodies, Which? and other interested parties.
Her report highlighted four key points to consider:
• The need for improved intelligence sharing and analysis across the sector
• The need for the FSA to strengthen its Major Incident Plan
• Improved clarity of the role of Government departments in large complex incidents
• A review of the FSA’s powers and the use of framework agreements and codes of conduct
FSA Chair Jeff Rooker said: "The FSA welcomes this report and we will review Professor Troop’s findings in detail. This is the biggest food incident ever handled by the Food Standards Agency and it is important that we learn lessons from our handling – both what worked well and areas that need to be improved."
FSA Chief Executive Catherine Brown said: "It is striking that there was a large degree of agreement among other Government departments, and among senior staff here, that the role of the FSA was to lead the investigation of this national food incident, regardless of the extent to which there was any food safety risk. We do need to formalise that understanding, and embed it in both our own organisation and across Government, so that we are all ready to respond should there be a similar incident in the future."
"The points that Professor Troop has identified about powers are similar in some respects to those identified by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee in its first report on the incident. I am particularly struck by Professor Troop’s thoughts on how better collaboration and co-ordination of the response to future major incidents may be achieved through the collaborative approaches of industry codes of conduct and framework agreements with local authorities, in line with our commitment to treat legislation as a last resort."
Proposals for a comprehensive action plan will be presented to the Board at its next open meeting on 16 July.
