Traces of horse meat have been found in burgers on sale in mainstream supermarkets in Ireland, the Food Safety Authority said in a statement.
The finding includes a burger sold by global supermarket chain Tesco that contained 29% horse meat, according to the Associated Press.
Ireland's Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney traced the meat back to a single meat processor in County Monaghan, on the border with Northern Ireland. Coveney told state broadcaster RTE that an imported additive used to make the burger appears to have been packed with horsemeat.
U.K.-based Tesco, one of the world's largest food retailers and known in the U.S. under its Fresh & Easy brand, apologized for the horse meat-laden burger and pulled store brand burgers from groceries in Britain and Ireland.
Professor Alan Reilly, chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), said there was no health risk but also no reasonable explanation for horse meat to be found.
"Whilst there is a plausible explanation for the presence of pig DNA in these products due to the fact that meat from different animals is processed in the same meat plants, there is no clear explanation at this time for the presence of horse DNA in products emanating from meat plants that do not use horse meat in their production process," Prof Reilly said.
"In Ireland, it is not in our culture to eat horse meat and therefore, we do not expect to find it in a burger."
The DNA tests found horse in the following products: Tesco Everyday Value Beef Burgers 29.1%; Tesco Beef Quarter Pounders 0.1%; Oakhurst Beef Burgers in Aldi 0.3%; Moordale Quarter Pounders in Lidl 0.1%; Flamehouse Chargrilled Quarter Pounders in Dunnes Stores 0.1%; two varieties of Iceland Quarter Pounders 0.1%.
