A new food scandal is born, after horse meat, it is the turn of the British beef to enter the scene. The daily Sunday Times reveals that 28,000 beef carcasses tested positive for tuberculosis are exported to France, Belgium and the Netherlands each year, having been brought by a government veterinary agency to a slaughterhouse in the UK.
According to the daily, British supermarket chains as well as McDonald’s and Burger King fast food restaurants refused to sell this meat. The contaminated beef would therefore be sold to school canteens and hospital restaurants, according to the Sunday Times.
A very low risk
“The export of carcasses, which do not require special labeling, is legal because the scientific advisers of the government insist on the very low risk of infection of the human being by this meat”, explains the British journalist who revealed information.
A very low risk therefore, but not zero, because “the development of tuberculosis can take years and it is difficult to trace the cause of contamination. Besides meat, milk can be a carrier of the bacteria,” recalls Le Figaro.
Moreover, the United Kingdom health agency has launched a study to try to understand the origin of the last cases of tuberculosis contamination.
