Horsemeat scandal: Tesco reveals 60% content in dish - BBC News

11 February 2013 Last updated at 13:48 ET

Some Tesco Everyday Value Spaghetti Bolognese contains 60% horsemeat, DNA tests by the retailer have found.

The meal was withdrawn from sale last Tuesday and came from the same French factory producing Findus beef lasagne, at the centre of a current row over horsemeat..

Meanwhile, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has told MPs of plans to test all processed beef in the UK.

Romania has rejected claims that it was responsible for wrongly labelling horsemeat from its abattoirs.

Tesco took the frozen bolognese off the shelves when it found out Findus was concerned about the source of its meat at the same Comigel processing plant in Metz, north-eastern France.

It is one of several products that have been withdrawn from UK shelves amid the current scandal over horsemeat in food products in the UK and Europe.

Tesco Group technical director Tim Smith said: "The frozen Everyday Value Spaghetti Bolognese should contain only Irish beef from our approved suppliers. The source of the horsemeat is still under investigation by the relevant authorities.

"The level of contamination suggests that Comigel was not following the appropriate production process for our Tesco product and we will not take food from their facility again.

"We are very sorry that we have let customers down."

Mr Paterson told MPs he had called in representatives of all Britain's producers, retailers and distributors and "made it clear" he expected to see immediate testing of all processed beef products across the supply chain.

He said testing should take place every three months, and the Food Standards Agency should be notified of results.

He told representatives from the British Retail Consortium, the Food and Drink Federation, the British Meat Processors Association, the Federation of Wholesale Distributors, the Institute of Grocery Distribution and individual retailers that he expected to see:

• "meaningful results from this testing by the end of this week;
• "more testing of products for horse along the supply chain and that the industry must co-operate fully with the FSA on this;
• "publication of industry test results every three months through the FSA;
• "and that they let the FSA know as soon as they become aware of a potential problem in their products."

In the Commons, Labour's Mary Creagh accused Mr Paterson of being too slow to respond as incidents emerged.