First Ikea, and now Taco Bell is the latest company to have used horse meat in their products, in the U.K. A test conducted by Britain’s Food Standards Agency concluded that the fast food restaurant was using more than just beef and chicken in their burritos, tacos, and whatever other concoctions they offer.
After conducting their own test, Taco Bell found that there were in fact traces of horse DNA in the meat. The company released a statement apologizing to its customers, and blamed the incident on their European supplier. “Based on that testing, we learned ingredients supplied to us from one supplier in Europe tested positive for horse meat,” the statement said. “We immediately withdrew it from sale, and discontinued purchase of that meat and contacted the Food Standards Agency with this information.”
The horse meat has since been pulled from all three Taco Bell locations in Britain.
Taco Bell wants to make it clear that their domestic locations are not involved in the horse meat scandal. “Our domestic restaurants have not been, and will not be, impacted because we do not use any meat from Europe,” the company said in a statement to Hip-Hop Wired. “We stand for quality and we use 100% premium beef. Like all beef in the United States, ours is USDA inspected and then passes our own 20 quality checkpoints.”
Horse meat being passed off as something else, seems to be a growing trend. In addition to Ikea’s Swedish meatballs being made of horse, Burger King admitted to using the animal meat in their burger patties.
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Photo: Taco Bell
