No further evidence of horsemeat contamination has been found in beef products, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has said.
A further 9,588 tests on beef products were conducted from June to September.
These included 7,402 products submitted by the ABP Food Group, the Irish meat processing group which sparked the initial concerns after horsemeat was found in the burgers it processed for UK retailers, including Tesco and the Co-operative Group.
None of the latest samples were found to contain horsemeat above the 1% threshold or any signs of equine DNA.
FSA chief executive Catherine Brown said: “We have continued to work with the industry and local authorities since the previous set of results were published, and there has been ongoing co-operation from the food industry.
“This second report finds that all results are negative for horsemeat DNA at the 1% level.”
There have now been 32,404 beef products tested since the food scare surfaced in January. There have been positive results on 47 products.
Despite widespread inquiries there have yet to be any charges brought against any firm or individual in the EU for food fraud.
The issue remains a concern for the Scottish Government. Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead used a recent Agriculture Council meeting in Brussels to discuss the horse meat scandal with EU consumer affairs and health commissioner Joe Borg.
He reminded him of the need for Europe to take tough action.
Mr Lochhead said: “The EU needs to take this issue seriously as consumers need to be able to trust what they buy, and it is important that their confidence is not undermined by deliberate fraud and food mislabelling.”
A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) meanwhile stated that the UK Government must remove the confusion that marred the response to the crisis and improve its understanding of potential food fraud.
The NAO said the government failed to identify the possibility of adulteration of beef products with horsemeat, despite indications of heightened risk. And it found that, while arrangements for identifying and testing for food safety were “relatively mature and effective”, similar arrangements for the authenticity of food were not.
According to the report, a split in responsibilities between the FSA and Whitehall in 2010 led to confusion about the role of the FSA and Defra in responding to food authenticity incidents.
An FSA review has already found some of its staff and local authorities were confused about why the agency was taking the lead in investigating the incident.
The NAO said local authorities had reported that they remained unclear about who to contact regarding certain areas of food policy.