Ireland's organic certification body, the Organic Trust has suggested that the Horseburger scandal is merely a symptom of a wider, systemic problem. The Organic Trust said the scandal, which broke in Ireland last week, is the result of false economy in a food system which has the wrong priorities.

The scandal broke when the Food Safety Authority of Ireland announced it had found traces of other animals, including pigs and horses in burgers on sale at Tesco, Iceland, Lidl and Aldi in the UK and Ireland. In the days that followed, Sainsbury's and Asda also removed burgers produced at the plants identified by FSAI as having produced contaminated burgers.

ABP, the meat processing giant which operates the plants; two of which are in Ireland, one in Yorkshire, blamed the contamination on suppliers in Spain and the Netherlands. FSAI found traces of pig in 85 percent of burgers tested and horse in 37 percent. In one sample from Tesco, horse meat accounted for 29 percent of a burger.  

Commentators including food policy expert Tim Lang have said that, although there is no health risk associated with the scandal, it raises serious issues about traceability. Professor Lang last week summed up concerns, stating "Horse meat in beefburgers suggests failings in corporate food governance."  

However, Lang, who has been professor of Food Policy at London's City University for over a decade, commented "There doesn't appear to be a health and safety problem here, but when you get standards being cut, costs being cut, corners being cut on what is being delivered, then health and safety can easily become part of that. The danger is that if we allow a highly squeezed, very competitive food system to deliver low cost foods then cut them down even further, we will get dangerous foods masquerading as real food."

On Monday (21st January), Organic Trust described the debacle as "yet another failure in the race to the bottom with food quality and prices." A spokesperson for the organic organisation said in a statement "If we look at all of the recent food scandals - BSE, Dioxins in pork and now burgergate - we have to acknowledge the common thread. All of these problems arise from producers and processors caught in a system where price is king and anything that brings down the price of your produce can mean the difference between survival and bankruptcy."

They continued, "We recognise that in hard fiscal times it is difficult for many people to avoid the temptation of cheap food, but we have to ask ourselves - is it really cheap? The old adage that there is no such thing as a free lunch is very true and someone is paying for these artificially low prices." The trust claimed responsible producers and advocates of organic agriculture "strive every day in the face of growing criticism from vested interests and big business to try to influence a market to act like a society" and urged all food producers to do the same.

Other farming organisations in Ireland and the UK have expressed outrage at meat processors they feel have undermined their hard work and damaged their image.