Old racehorses, even pet ponies, may have ended up in restaurants across Britain as kebabs as well as beefburgers -

Old racehorses, even pet ponies, may have ended up in restaurants across Britain as kebabs as well as beefburgers - 


HORSES killed at a British slaughterhouse were turned into doner kebabs, it was alleged last night.

Officials from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) raided two UK meat plants yesterday.

They were probing whether either plant was linked to 100% horse kebabs and burgers that have been discovered.

It comes amid fears that old racehorses, even pet ponies, may have ended up in fast food restaurants across Britain as kebabs as well as beefburgers.

The raids took place at the Peter Boddy slaughterhouse in Todmorden, West Yorks, which allegedly supplied horse carcasses to Farmbox Meats in Aberystwyth, Wales.

All work at both plants was immediately halted, and meat and paperwork seized, while investigations continue.

An FSA spokesman said: “We and the police are looking into the circumstances through which meat products, purporting to be beef for kebabs and burgers, were sold when they were in fact horse.”

Peter Boddy said he will co-operate with Food Standards Agency officers and said they had not “raided” his Todmorden premises.

He said: “It was not a raid - they are welcome to visit whenever they want, they just wanted to see my records which I will be showing them.”

He added that he does slaughter horses at his plant and that the meat is sold in the UK.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson was “absolutely shocked” last night.

He said: “It’s totally unacceptable if any business in the UK is defrauding the public by passing off horsemeat as beef.

“I expect the full force of the law to be brought down on anyone involved in this kind of activity.”

Elsewhere, scientists were already calling for urgent checks on lamb.

They fear the meat destined for Britain’s takeaways could have been mixed with flesh from horses.

Dr Mark Woolfe, former head of food authenticity at the Food Standards Agency, said: “If I was a retailer I would be looking quite carefully at my lamb products.”

The FSA is also heaping pressure on supermarkets and retailers to begin checking chicken and pork dishes.

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