A retailer reportedly demanded a meat processor produced a 4oz “gourmet” burger for less than 30p, according to the man leading the UK Government review into this year’s horsemeat scandal.
In his interim report, published yesterday Professor Chris Elliott, from Queen’s University Belfast, calls for the creation of a specialist food crime unit and says consumers need to ask themselves whether certain deals are too good to be true.
Professor Elliott tells of a meat processor who was asked to produce a gourmet beefburger for a unit price of less than 30p.
The processor, says Elliott, calculated that the cheapest unit price for producing a burger – including labour, packaging and transport – would be 59p when using beef from cull cows available at 264p/kg.
To meet the retailer’s demands of producing a 30p burger, the processor said the average price of beef would need to be 68% lower at 85p/kg.
In his report, Prof Elliott says: “If a retailer were to secure a foodstuff for a price well below the recognised market price, then it might be inferred that the most obvious way the supply was meeting that price was by committing the offence of fraud by misrepresentation.”
He says the onus must be on retailers to prove no food fraud is committed when sourcing food.
In November the Scottish Government said tough new laws could be introduced to protect consumers against food fraud.
The horsemeat scandal kicked off in January when a Tesco economy beefburger was found to contain 29% horse DNA.
Investigations at the time found widespread food fraud, and the scandal escalated resulting in a number of branded foods – including Findus beef lasagne – being withdrawn from and traces of horse DNA were also found in public sector meals.
Scotland’s top food safety expert – Professor Hugh Pennington – yesterday backed calls for a specialist food crime unit and said he agreed with Princess Anne’s suggestion that horse welfare could be improved by putting horsemeat on sale in the UK.
Last month, Princess Anne said owners might take better care of their horses if they knew they could sell them for meat.