Burger King admits to horsemeat being one of the ingredients in their famous burgers including the Whooper. The tainted burgers were sold at their U.K. locations. When it was first discovered that the burgers contained horsemeat, the folks from Burger King denied these allegations, but according to The Daily Mail on Jan. 31, 2013, they have now admitted that the allegations of horsemeat being in the burgers is true.
The popular fast-food chain, which has over 500 restaurants in the U.K., denied the claims of horsemeat in their burger items even after tests were done that offered proof that horsemeat was present in the burger items marketed as beef. The company gave “absolute assurances” for the last two weeks that their burgers were made of beef. Now that the truth has come out, this could destroy the trust factor that Burger King customers have with this popular fast-food chain.
The burgers containing the horsemeat were made by a company that is part of the ABP Foods group, Silvercrest. The Silvercrest Company is an Irish-based processing company. Burger King was not the only restaurant to get the tainted burgers. Tesco, Asda and the Co-op, along with other businesses were sold the same meat.
Burger King is facing allegations that they continued to deny the horsemeat allegations to bide some time while finding another supplier. Currently the fast-food chain is meeting the demand for burgers in the U.K. by shipping burgers from suppliers in Italy and Germany.
Burger King’s official statement seemed like an attempt to soften the dilemma they are facing:
“Four samples recently taken from the Silvercrest plant have shown the presence of very small trace levels of equine DNA.” They went on to say, “Within the last 36 hours, we have established that Silvercrest used a small percentage of beef imported from a non-approved supplier in Poland.”
The vice president of the Burger King, Diego Beamonte, apologized this week saying:
“We are deeply troubled by the findings of our investigation and apologize to our guests, who trust us to source only the highest quality 100 per cent beef burgers.”
He put the blame on the supplier by saying:
“Our supplier has failed us and in turn we have failed you. We are committed to ensuring that this does not happen again.”
This brought up questions about the administration at Burger King and if they really know what is going into their burgers, reports the Daily Mail.
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