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Horsemeat has been found in Royal Ascot caterer Sodexo's frozen beef products
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Horsemeat found in Royal Ascot caterer Sodexo's frozen beef

By Becky Barnes
February 24, 2013

Royal Ascot's 'fine dining' caterer has withdrawn all frozen beef products after tests revealed some contained horsemeat.

Sodexo, which provides catering for the racecourse as well as schools, staff canteens and corporate events across the UK, announced internal sampling had identified frozen beef products which tested positive for horse DNA on Friday.

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In a statement, Sodexo said: "This situation is totally unacceptable.

"We demanded written assurances from across our supply chain that the products we purchase did not contain horsemeat, and additionally implemented an internal sampling programme.

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"Despite repeated guarantees from our suppliers, our sampling has identified frozen beef products which tested positive for equine DNA.

"We felt the only appropriate response was to withdraw not only this product but all frozen beef products.

"We will only re-admit into our catering operations products that have affirmatively passed DNA testing, pursuant to laboratory test criteria.

"We have notified the FSA of our findings and will assist fully in its investigation. We have also launched our own investigation to understand how this regrettable situation arose.

"Food safety, traceability and quality remain the top priority for Sodexo and this is why we have taken these steps."

It added Sodexo's Tillery Valley Foods business which provides meals to the healthcare sector had not been affected.

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Most recent user comments 4 of 4

I bet they paid a lot more for their horse meat meal than we did for our Aldi Lasagne :)

Dids, Bracknell
24/02/2013 at 19:36

Cant resist .... surely they do use local suppliers? Ascot holds HORSE Racing? .....

Sorry!!!

Tom Edwards, Bracknell
24/02/2013 at 16:40

The meat chain is so long and convoluted the chances are this firm bought and sold the meat several times themselves before becoming the end-user. As for Ascot using local caterers I don't believe they use local anything and apart from a nucleus of permanent staff the rest are bussed in as required.

The horsemeat problem will soon go away as so long as producers keep the proportion of horse in their product below 1% it isn't really there. They just need to invest in better weighing scales and mixers.

timespassing
24/02/2013 at 15:23

This sort of scandal points to the need for organisations like Ascot which need firms to provide high quality dining to look more locally. A french based conglomerate that operates in 80 countries worldwide is the wrong choice for this sort of catering.

We need establishments like this to use local UK caterers.