U.K. Ministry of Justice Announces Finding Pork DNA in Halal Prison Foods

By Matt Clarke

In February 2013, the U.K.’s Department of Justice issued an apology and suspended a prison meat supplier after traces of pork DNA was discovered in Halal pies and pasties. The prison system had purchased the meat products from a Halal-certified caterer, yet an investigation turned up pork DNA and DNA from other non-Halal animals in the food.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said that all the prisons in the system have been informed and the supplier suspended.

"All prisons have been immediately informed about this very regrettable incident and we reported this issue to the Food Standards Agency [FSA] immediately," said the spokesman. "We are taking immediate steps to suspend the contract with the relevant subcontractor."

The FSA is the national agency responsible for food safety. The FSA announced that a local authority from the supplier's location is investigating how the contamination could have occurred and whether contaminated products have been distributed elsewhere.

Justice Minister Jeremy Wright criticized the prison food contamination and offered his support to those affected by it.

"This is an absolutely unacceptable situation, and one which we regret greatly," said Wright. "Clearly this must be distressing for those affected and they can be reassured we are doing everything we can to resolve the situation. The Prison Service is investigating this as a matter of urgency."

"This is not a matter of dietary preference but of Islamic law," said Juliet Lyon, director of The Prison Reform Trust. "There are clear hospital and prison rules that Halal meat must be on the menu. This lapse will have offended and distressed high numbers of Muslim prisoners and their families so apologizing, suspending the supplier and investigating the incident are the right steps for the Ministry of Justice."

The prison meat contamination scandal comes hot on the heels of a scandal in which it was discovered that meat sold to the public ‘s beef industry—including Burger King Hamburgers—contained small amounts of horse and/or pork DNA. On January 31, 2013, Burger King admitted that the hamburgers it had been selling were contaminated with horse DNA and announced that it was dropping Silvercrest, the Irish food processing plant that had supplied the contaminated meat. Silvercrest is part of the ABP Food Group and also made hamburger meat for the Tesco, Asda and Co-op grocery chains, among others.

On the same day, the Aldi grocery chain admitted that samples of its Oakhurst Beefburgers tested positive for 0.1% horse DNA and its Oakhurst Quarter Pounders tested positive for 0.1% horse DNA and 0.1% pork DNA. It is withdrawing all of its frozen hamburgers from its U.K. stores. Its burgers were made by Dalepack, a food processor in Richmond, Yorkshire which also made burgers for Iceland, another firm that admitted to horse meat contamination in its beef products.

The FSA has ordered all food companies serving the U.K. to attend a conference on food labeling.

"People have a right to expect that the food they are eating is correctly described," said an FSA spokesman. "It is the responsibility of food businesses to ensure the food they sell contains what it says on the label."

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

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