Horse meat found in ground beef burgers for sale in Europe

EUROPE (WITI) -- Some ground beef patties on sale in Europe may not be so safe. DNA tests have revealed traces of horse meat in burgers across Ireland and Britain. Now, Irish meat processor Silvercrest Foods is recalling $10 million burgers.

Silvercrest is Ireland's second largest processor of beef burgers. 

Investigators were surprised to find that one burger among 27 tested by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland contained 29% horsemeat!

The discovery poses no danger to public health but casts a threat to Ireland's rural economy.

"One of them involves illegality by suppliers or suppliers to those individual suppliers, or gross negligence, in which case we're still very keen to get to the bottom of this," TESCO Group Technical Director Tim Smith said.

"It's also possible that in the current financial climate, someone has been tempted to cut corners and a batch of horse meat has been supplied fraudulently," Michael Walker, science and food law consultant said.

In 2008, high levels of cancer causing dioxins were found in about 10 farms in Ireland. That cost the industry some $650 million in lost trade.

The horse meat scandal may be a bit more forgiving in part because much of Europe consume horse meat as a delicacy.