A NUMBER of meat products sold in the UK have been found to include unlabelled offal and blood, according to an independent study using a new method of analysis.
Scientists at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) tested 57 products from 10 unspecified retailers and found that seven contained undeclared offal and five contained blood serum.
The results come a year after the horse-meat scandal which led to products such as burgers and lasagne being removed from supermarkets after they were found to contain traces of horse.
According to NTU scientist Professor Ellen Billett, the undeclared offal was detected at a level of 1 per cent or more, with some products containing more than one type of offal. The report said the five products with undeclared blood contained serum "at a much higher level than expected".
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said it was working with NTU to develop validated testing methods. The results of this work are due to be published in late summer.
A Defra spokeswoman said it was not possible to draw conclusions from the study until there was "a robust method that is technically sound" in place.
An FSA spokesman said local authorities would follow up on any undeclared offal found in products.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article