Horsemeat Detected in Chicken Nuggets in Greece

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Chicken nuggets and other meat products have been recalled by Greek health authorities after being found to contain horsemeat, the UK’s Meat Trades Journal reported Monday.

The Hellenic Food Safety Authority (EFET) said in a statement that the fraud was discovered via laboratory testing, but so far the first eight results for phenylbutazone, a drug commonly administered to horses that is harmful to humans, have all been negative.

Horse DNA was detected at various levels in a variety of products, including soutzouki (more than 25 percent horsemeat), chicken nuggets (between 10 and 25 percent), pre cooked frozen burgers (more than 50 percent) and frankfurter sausage (between 10 and 25 percent).

See meatinfo.co.uk for a full list of recently recalled products.

The recall became widely known on Monday, just as an editorial by Bloomberg News on how the recent horsemeat scandals are an example of the weaknesses in the global food chain was being circulated.

    “The horse-meat storm that broke over Europe two months ago has been in one respect a tempest in a horseshoe, because it posed no threat to human health,” read the editorial. “That’s not a minor caveat in an industry where, in the United States alone, tainted food kills 3,000 people each year and sickens 48 million. The horse-meat substitution has struck a nerve, however, as people wonder what else they’re eating that isn’t what they think it is.”