On Friday (15th February), the Food Safety Authority in the UK published its findings from the first round of testing on processed beef products. Of all 2,500 products tested, "undeclared horsemeat" was found at levels above 1 percent in around 1 percent of products.

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FSA said "the positive results all relate to seven products that have already been reported and where the food business and the FSA have already taken appropriate action to remove the products from sale and notify consumers."

The authority announced on Friday that its testing regime, which will continue this week at the behest of Defra secretary Owen Paterson, is being pursued in an effort to build up an accurate picture of contamination within the processed meat supply chain. Inspectors will continue to conduct authenticity tests on beef products such as burgers, lasagnes and meatballs, in light of the recent horse meat issue.

Since January, processed foods on sale in the UK and other European countries, labelled as being beef have been found to contain traces of other meats including horse and pig meat. The ensuing scandal has implicated major retailers and food processors.

Announcing the results, FSA Chief Executive Catherine Brown said "In terms of faith groups, there remains a significant issue about trace levels of other species below 1 percent. So we have a separate programme of work under way with Defra to look at the issues around that, too."

She added, "It's encouraging that we have received so many results from industry so quickly, which reaffirms their commitment to working with us to address the serious issue of consumer confidence in the UK food supply."

However, an animal welfare charity has claimed that Defra ministers were warned about the potential for contamination in 2011. World Horse Welfare spokesperson Roly Owers said last week that his organisation warned government officials of widespread fraud in horse passports at a meeting in November 2011. Defra said FSA is examining records to verify the claim and ascertain whether the issue was covered in any detail at the time.

Although all horsemeat samples found in products on sale in the UK have tested negative for banned veterinary drug phenylbutazone (bute), it has been revealed that several horses exported from the UK to France were contaminated.

The scandal has had a marked effect on consumers in the UK, where sales in farm shops and local butchers have rocketed as a result of fears over meat contamination and shoppers polled have suggested they may cut down on the amount of meat they consume.

London City University Food Policy professor Tim Lang last week commented that "So far [the horsemeat scandal] isn't about safety, it's about trust," and suggested consumers have lost faith in a food system whose convolutions and shortcomings have been laid bare over the past month; Professor Lang added "We can't have industry policing itself, that's what's gone wrong; the big food companies didn't actually have the power they said they had."   

Results from the next batch of FSA meat testing will be available on Friday.