Beware of British Salami

LONDON (Reuters) - British food standards officers said Wednesday they would test salami sold in British shops after discovering consumers were unwittingly eating horse meat. The Food Standards Agency, an independent food safety watchdog, said it would test more than a hundred salamis and other processed meats, after an informal survey earlier this year found three out of 24 products tested contained horse meat which had not been declared as an ingredient. Of the three products found to contain horse meat, two came from Belgium and the third from Italy. "We do not yet know the scale of the problem but we want to find out," said the agency's head of food labeling, Rosemary Hignett. "Some people may prefer not to eat these products, even though food safety is not the issue and they are often traditional recipes." Horse meat is not illegal, but failing to label products correctly breaks labeling laws. Hignett said local councils across Britain would collect samples of meats including pastrami and chorizo from supermarkets and over the next few months. Food standards officers said they would also conduct tests to find out if any products contained donkey meat. (Link: Agency to Test Salami After Finding Horse Meat