Waitrose meatballs came from Glasgow factory

By JULIA HORTON
Published on 13/02/2013 15:04

WAITROSE beef meatballs removed from sale yesterday after tests suggested they may contain pork were made at Scottish factory, the supermarket said today.

The ‘Essential frozen British beef meatballs’ were produced at the ABP Foods-owned Freshlink factory in the east end of Glasgow last summer.

Waitrose said it had checked 40 meat products as a result of the deepening horsemeat scandal and analysis of the meatballs had produced “contradictory results”.

The supermarket withdrew the 480g range of the product from shelves yesterday as a precaution.

In an open letter to customers, Waitrose managing director Mark Price said today: “We have now done tests on 40 of our meat products, no horsemeat was found in any of these tests.

“We did, however, discover that in just two batches of our essential Waitrose frozen British beef meatballs (480g), some of the meatballs may contain some pork.

“In fact, one of the tests carried out showed that the meat in the meatballs was, as it should be, 100 per cent beef.

“But because another test indicated there may be some pork, I felt it important for you to be aware.”

A spokeswoman for ABP said: “Freshlink has carried out over 450 DNA tests during the last two-and-a-half years.

“All our test results have been confirmed as negative for non-declared species.

“Freshlink will share all results directly with the FSA (Food Standards Agency) as part of their investigations.”

Last November it was announced that the Freshlink factory was to close, with production to be moved to a site in Yorkshire by April.