Polish offcuts were 75 percent horsemeat, says Irish department of agriculture

Ireland’s government found that Polish offcuts labeled as beef and imported into Ireland contained up to 75 percent horsemeat, according to a report from the Associated Press. Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney said police are involved in the investigation after a second Irish meat processing plant was found to be using contaminated products from the Polish facility. Polish authorities say their testing of the implicated slaughterhouses has not produced any evidence of horsemeat. Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny aims to identify those at fault in the scandal, calling it “a matter of reputation.” When asked whether the meat could have been mislabeled as Polish by Irish fraudsters, Kenny admitted that further investigation could be forthcoming. Ireland has experienced several cases of meat industry fraud before, including one case two decades ago where exporters were caught relabeling meat that was past its sell-by date and exporting it to Russia.