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London firm fined over "bad batch" of sausage containing horse meat

A food import company has been fined £5,000 after supposedly pork sausagemeat was found to contain nearly 50% horsemeat.

Expo Foods Ltd, based in Enfield, London, admitted breaching the Food Safety Act before Dartford magistrates.

Kent trading standards officers found the Bulgarian-cured sausage during spot checks in Dartford last year.

The company, which was also ordered to pay £2,500 court costs, said it had been a “bad batch”. The court heard that Expo Foods had not tested the food it supplied.

The company’s managing director Ozgur Yilmaz declined to comment after leaving court on Thursday.

Expo Foods has since withdrawn the product from sale and has made changes to its supplier network, while working with Kent County Council and the Food Standards Agency

Richard Strawson, from Kent trading standards, said the find was very concerning for officers:

He said: “We are aware of the sensitivities amongst the public concerning eating horsemeat and therefore feel our actions were necessary.”

Food analyst John Griffin said tests revealed the sausagemeat contained 46% horsemeat. He said: “That’s a significant amount of horsemeat.

“Considering there was no horse indicated to be present in the food at all, the public were not aware if they ate this product there would be horse present. So it’s a real problem.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .