The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has rejected claims it was "asleep on the job" by not detecting the presence of horse DNA in processed meat products sooner.
But its chief executive, addressing the agency's board meeting yesterday, said the body had to ask whether it should have been "more alert" to the risks of possible contamination.
Catherine Brown said: "We have been irritated by suggestions we were in some way asleep on the job, suggestions that come from those who speak with the benefit of perfect hindsight.
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