Sweden: Pork sold as beef, EU warning issued
Pork meat has been sold as beef to grocery wholesalers in Sweden, resulting in an EU-wide warning being issued. Tonnes of pork were dyed to look like beef, resulting in the EU-wide warning being issued by Sweden’s National Food Agency.
Wholesaler Svensk Cater uncovered the pork meat when ‘beef from Argentina’ was returned by a customer who said that the meat was too moist.
“I tried the product. Then I discovered it had been injected with a lot of a dye,” Thomas Narving of Svensk Cater said.
Tested
Following the discovery, the meat was sent to the National Food Agency for testing. It confirmed that it was ‘fake’ beef and that was actually pork meat which had been injected with food colouring.
This led The National Food Agency to issue an EU-wide warning regarding the meat as there are concerns about the added dye used, and also the health risks associated with undercooking pork.
Beef from Hungary
Svensk Cater ordered the shipment from Swedish meat supplier Heat AB – Svensk Cater received meat which was billed as beef from Hungary. A Heat AB spokesperson said that it purchased the meat from Hungarian supplier Filetto in the belief that it was really beef. “I’ve been duped,” Heat AB’s Åke Hultberg said.
Svensk Cater has not sold any of the fake beef to clients but it is not known whether the meat made its way to restaurants or shops in Sweden through other wholesalers.
Source: The Local
