Horse Meat Scandal Dings Taco Bell in the U.K.
By: Barnaby Dorfman
Published: March 1, 2013

The horse meat sold as beef scandal that has rocked the European food world has now extended to a couple of well know American brands in the United Kingdom. The BBC reported today that DNA testing has shown that Taco Bell ground beef and Birds Eye "Traditional Spaghetti Bolognese and Beef Lasagne" contained more than 1% of horse, which is the level considered necessary to prove contamination. The tests were conducted by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the British equivalent of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States.
A representative of Taco Bell said: "Once we learned of this issue, we immediately voluntarily tested our product for our three Taco Bell restaurants in the UK." There have not been any reports of horse meat mixed into in the US food supply and the food systems here are substantially separate from  those of Europe. However, little to no DNA testing has been done on American ground meat, which often contains mixtures of animal products from Australia, Uruguay, Mexico and Canada.
This is the latest news of contamination since it was reported earlier this week that horse meat was found in Ikea meatballs produced in the Czech republic and sold across Europe.