Here is an update on the devolping story about how in the world horse meat, ended up in European burgers!!! ~Declan
Revealed: Dirty Larry, the multi-millionaire behind firm sneaking horsemeat into your supermarket
- Larry Goodman, 76, is a director of the ABP Food Group
- He was revealed to have had business links with Saddam Hussein
- His companies have deals with Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Burger King
By Keith Gladdis As Posted on Mail Online
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Off the shelves: Mr Goodman, 76, is a director of the ABP Food Group which owns meat processors which supplied burgers containing horsemeat to Tesco
By August 1990 Goodman had accumulated almost £550million in debts and an emergency session of Ireland’s parliament the Dail was called with politicians thinking one of the country’s most successful businessmen was in crisis.
Eventually the banks took a 60 per cent stake in the business and Goodman – a lifetime teetotaller – was allowed to cling on to the rest. But an investigation by Granada TV journalist Susan O’Keefe, now an Irish Labour senator, subsequently revealed serious financial malpractice involving the Goodman International group.
That then led to a judicial tribunal in Ireland, known as the Beef Tribunal, which shone a light on the relationship between Goodman and Ireland’s then Taoiseach Charles Haughey.
Boss: Larry Goodman is a director of the APB Food Group. Pictured is the ABP foods factory in Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire which is one of the frozen food suppliers identified as using horse meat in burgers
It was during this hearing that Goodman – one of Ireland’s richest men with a fortune believed to be worth around £600million – became dubbed ‘Dirty Larry’ by the Irish media.
THE UNWANTED HORSES DESTINED FOR THE TABLE
For many, it is simply a matter of economics.
While calling the vet to put down a lame or surplus horse can cost in excess of £200, abattoirs will gladly pay £300 for an unwanted animal.
As a result, 8,118 horses and ponies were slaughtered in Britain in 2011, to be sent to the continent to be sold as gourmet meat.
Nothing is wasted, with their skins going into the leather trade, while any off-cuts will be used as dog food.
Most will be former pets their owners cannot care for or riding school mounts that can no longer pay their way because they are too old to work.
But according to Ben Martin, a campaigner for charity Animal Aid, in 2011 ‘1,127 were thoroughbreds discarded by the racing industry’, which ‘overproduces horses each year’.
The number of British horses ending their days in the slaughterhouse has doubled since 2008, a little-known consequence of the recession. Mr Martin said around 10,000 horses and ponies are now believed to be slaughtered in Britain each year.
‘With belt-tightening following the recession, it is often luxuries such as horses that face the chop,’ he said. ‘It makes sense they would end up in slaughterhouses rather than paying a vet a fee or trying to sell them on.
‘The real scandal behind the horse slaughter figures is that the volume of horses being produced for the pet and horse racing industries is unregulated and out of control.’
Permitted methods of slaughter include shooting with a bullet, or stunning with a penetrative bolt followed by immediate bleeding.
There are two major abattoirs that take horses in Britain, but they are not keen on publicising it.
Several thousand live horses are believed to be sent to the continent for slaughter. Customers in France, Belgium and Italy like horse meat. Small amounts are also eaten in Spain, Portugal, Holland and Romania.
A spokesman for the Food Standards Agency said almost all British horse meat is exported. ‘It is legal to slaughter and sell horse meat in the UK, provided it is from an approved abattoir and the meat must carry the stamp declaring it is fit for human consumption,’ he added.
It emerged that after winning an election in 1987 Haughey had agreed to underwrite a multi-million pound beef contract Goodman had secured with Iraq.
The agreement meant the Irish government had effectively provided Goodman with an insurance that meant the taxpayer would foot the bill if Iraq reneged on its payments.
At the time Iraq was embroiled in a bitter war with its neighbour Iran. The policy was later cancelled. Despite the findings of the tribunal Goodman was never charged with any wrongdoing.
Less than five years after he was bailed out Goodman was able to buy his business back from the banks for £30million.
The beef baron’s processing company, Irish Food Processors, has not published accounts since 2001 when it recorded a turnover of £720million. His companies now have contracts with fast food chains and supermarkets including Tesco, Burger King, Asda and Sainsbury’s.
Now the company is under investigation again by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland amid suspicions that it may have received contaminated meat from unchecked sources.
Silvercrest Foods yesterday said it was withdrawing 10million beef patties from stores across Ireland and the United Kingdom.
The ABP Food Group yesterday said it had despatched its own auditors to two of its suppliers to conduct spot checks on their products.
In a statement it said: ‘We take this matter extremely seriously and apologise for the understandable concern this issue has caused.
‘ABP Food Group companies have never knowingly bought, handled or supplied equine meat products and we acknowledge the understandable concern created as a result of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland’s DNA frozen beef burger test results.’
It also said it was introducing a new testing regime for its meat products which will include DNA analysis.
In the Irish parliament yesterday Sinn Féin agriculture spokesman Martin Ferris demanded to know the names of the companies in Spain and the Netherlands which are believed to have supplied contaminated products.
The Irish minister for agriculture Simon Coveney said any companies involved in the production of beef burgers containing horse meat would be named.
He said: ‘If there are inappropriate linkages here, we will highlight those.’
A spokesman for Mr Goodman said he would not be making a personal statement on the horse meat issue.
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