Press Release - Ensure when you buy Beef that it is British beef

“Don’t be afraid of people seeking the truth, be aware of people saying they have found it.”

This is how I feel about the horse meat issue, we have continuing revelations, with processors and retailers rushing to fall on their swords. Everyone wishes to be telling the “truth” about their processes, everyone wants to come clean and say after an internal investigation we found our beef product was horse. The rush is on to tell the truth.

At the moment we are led to believe that no one in the manufacturing process was aware of horse meat been sold as beef, it makes one wonder when the processors were purchasing this bargain beef raw material that no one thought how can we be getting this beef at such a bargain price?

Beef is expensive to produce, expensive to process, expensive to store, expensive to distribute and yet there is an expectation that beef burgers can be made and sold for pennies.  A premium quality product such as British beef will always have a premium price.

The public must have confidence that the food they buy is properly labelled, legal and safe to eat whether it is purchased from a local butcher, supermarket, burger van or Michelin star restaurant.

 With ten million beefburgers withdrawn from sale in Ireland and the UK last month and further tests have shown some meat products in Ireland and Northern Ireland to be up to 80 per cent horse meat.

The Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has said the situation is “completely unacceptable” and promised to take action.

He said: “Consumers can be confident that we will take whatever action we consider necessary if we discover evidence of criminality or negligence.”

In Ireland, TD’s are calling the horsemeat fiasco a “criminal act against the economy” while police in the Irish Republic have launched an investigation.

This situation needs to be sorted fast and those to blame dealt with so that our industry and consumers can be assured that when it says British beef it is British beef.

Hamish McBean of the National Beef Association urges  “consumers to ask questions when they are buying their beef, ask where it comes from, demand  that those selling know its provenance, demand that the beef they buy is British beef.”

Contact Chris Mallon NBA National Director  for further information on 07579 009648