Horsemeat sold to restaurants could contain a cancer-causing drug used by the racing industry, MPs were told today.
Shadow environment secretary Mary Creagh said horses slaughtered last year tested positive for phenylbutazone, an anti-inflammatory that is banned from the food chain.
“I am in receipt of evidence showing that several horses slaughtered in UK abattoirs last year tested positive for phenylbutazone, or bute, a drug which causes cancer in humans and is banned from the human food chain. It is possible that those animals entered the human food chain.”
She demanded action so that “illegal and carcinogenic horse-meat stops entering the human food chain”. Ms Creagh said later she believed it had been exported to Europe.
The case is not linked to the revelation that burgers sold by Tesco and other supermarkets contained traces of horsemeat.
