One in five meat products contain animals NOT on label – and you’ll never know what you’re eating
Products such as curries, ready meals and pizzas were contaminated with unspecified meat
MORE than a fifth of meat sample tests in 2017 found DNA from animals not on the labelling, it has emerged.
The Food Standards Agency said some of the products which showed up undeclared animal meat were from supermarkets and convenience stores.
Affected products included curries, pizzas, ready meals and restaurant food.
The details came to light after a Freedom of Information request from the BBC.
Out of 665 results from England, Wales and Northern Ireland collected by the Food Standards Agency, 145 were partly or wholly made up of unspecified meat.
In total 73 of the contaminated samples came from retailers, including three supermarkets.
A further 50 came from restaurants, while 22 originated from manufacturing or food processing plants.
Local authorities tested foods which they already suspected there may be contamination issues.
The FSA said the levels were consistent with "deliberate inclusion".
In the worst case meat products contained no DNA from the animal or animals listed on packs.
Some samples contained DNA from as many as four different animals.
Meat labelled as lamb was most likely to contain traces of other animals' DNA, followed by beef and goat.
Cow DNA was the most commonly-found contaminant, followed by pig, chicken, sheep and turkey.
An FSA spokesman said it was up to the relevant local authorities - which procured the samples before sending the results to the FSA - to lead individual investigations and take "appropriate action" such as prosecutions.
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He added the results were "not representative of the wider food industry".
Less than half of local authorities submitted meat sampling data to the United Kingdom's Food Surveillance System - part of the FSA - in 2017.
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