Taco Bell, owned by U.S. firm Yum Brands Inc., is now reporting finding traces of horse meat in some of its food products in Great Britain. The company has three outlets in the U.K.
The Food Standard Agency (FSA) said on Friday it had conducted 1,797 tests with over 99 percent coming back negative for horse meat. However, four tests were positive, they said.
In a statement Taco Bell UK said “some batches of ground beef supplied to use from one supplier in Europe tested positive for horse meat. We immediately withdrew ground beef from sale in our restaurants, discontinued purchase of that meat, and contacted the Food Standards Agency with this information.â€
This revelation comes shortly after Yum Brands said it was moving to tighten food safety, after its KFC restaurants in China had a contaminated chicken scare.
On Wednesday, furniture giant Ikea removed sausages in the UK after tests found indications of horse meat in the product.
Taco Bell US added: “Our domestic restaurants have not been, and will not be, impacted because we do not use any meat from Europe. We stand for quality and we use 100% premium beef. Like all beef in the United States, ours is USDA inspected and then passes our own 20 quality checkpoints.â€
Source: Taco Bell