On Friday, the Food Standards Agency released the third and, it is hoped, final batch of test results carried out on processed meats from catering suppliers, supermarkets and local authorities.

The tests were conducted at Defra's insistence after a number of meat products sold as beef in the UK and other EU countries were found to contain significant levels of other animals, including pig and horse. Numerous cases of contamination, revealed in a steady stream since late January, have led to a widespread loss of trust in food buyers and processors amongst UK consumers.

Since the scandal erupted in the UK and Ireland, FSA has received 5430 test results. The results published on Friday included 1,797 new submissions.

On Friday, four more products were confirmed as containing horse DNA since the last series of results were published on Friday 22nd February. These included two products by frozen foods giant Birds Eye and one from catering supplier Brakes. FSA said on Friday that all products testing positive had been recalled.

On Thursday, the FSA also released further details of a sampling programme being conducted by the European Commission in response to the food scandal, which has affected countries across the EU. Testing for horse DNA in products labelled as beef will go ahead across the EU states to measure the scope of the problem. In the UK, 150 samples from retailers, wholesale and catering suppliers are currently being collected by 24 local authorities; FSA said "results of the analysis will be reported to the EU along with details of any follow-up action taken," by 9th April.

Although some farming groups in the UK have used the panic created by the scandal as an opportunity to promote the nebulous concept of 'British Farming', food policy experts claim this is oversimplifying a complex situation which has laid bare systemic failings in the current food system.

However, NFU leaders at the union's annual conference last week did call for the wider implementation of shorter supply chains, which should in theory benefit consumers and producers alike.

The industry and FSA maintain that the scandal is the result of malpractice by a few 'bad eggs' in the supply chain; FSA said on Friday that "The Agency believes that such levels of horse DNA indicate either gross negligence or deliberate substitution of one meat for another."

However, Professor Karel Williams of Manchester Business School and the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change said last month, "The [horsemeat scare] is what academics call a 'normal accident'; inevitable sooner or later because it is inherent in system design. The official line is that horsemeat is not a food safety issue, we are the victims of mafia fraud and the supermarkets should test more. This is both naive and a distraction. The problem is long and constantly shifting adversarial supply chains and it is unnecessary because we can have tight control of a short chain and no accidents."