The West Country's meat industry is hoping it can capitalise on the boost in trade that's followed the recent scandal over horsemeat in processed food.
Butchers report seeing more customers and producers say it now gives them a real chance to promote themselves.
Shoppers tell ITV NEWS West Country how their buying habits have changed following the horse meat scandal
The West Country's meat industry is hoping it can capitalise on the boost in trade that's followed the recent scandal over horsemeat in processed food.
Butchers report seeing more customers. Tim Potter from Wellington in Somerset says people trust their local butcher more than the supermarkets.
Horse meat from a Somerset abattoir has been found to contain traces of a potentially harmful painkiller. The government's Food Standards Agency said six horses recently slaughtered by LJ Potter Partners in Taunton contained bute
The carcasses were sent to France where they may have entered the food chain. The abattoir in Staplegrove in the town insists it's done nothing wrong. Bob Cruwys spent the day there
Full statement from slaughterers L J Potter, who use the Taunton abattoir where traces of the horse painkiller "bute" were found in meat
Read the full storyDame Sally Davies says that there is nothing to suggest a safety risk to humans who have eaten horse meat containing bute, but acknowledges that the chemical does present a minor health risk. She says it is right that bute is banned from the UK food chain. Her full statement can be found here.
Horse meat containing the chemical bute may have entered the French food chain. It has been traced to a Taunton slaughterhouse.
Read the full storyIn light of the horse meat scandal, Neil Parish MP (Con, Tiverton and Honiton) today asked for a Commons debate on the labelling of processed food, saying current labels were not clear enough about the product's origins.
Kerry McCarthy (Lab, Bristol East) today asked whether the Taunton horse meat scandal was just the tip of the iceberg as far as food origins were concerned. The painkiller bute has been found in horse meat slaughtered in Taunton and then exported for possible consumption in France.
The Agriculture Minister David Heath MP (Lib Dem, Somerton and Frome) agreed that more needed to be done by food processing companies and retailers across Europe to check exactly where their ingredients had come from.
Horse meat which contained the painkiller bute came from a slaughterhouse in Taunton. The meat was then exported to France, where it may have entered the food chain.
Food standards agents tested 206 carcasses, and found bute in 8 of them. 6 were slaughtered at LJ Potter Partners at Stillman’s (Somerset) Ltd, Taunton and exported to France before the test results were known. A quicker, 48-hour test has now been introduced.
The health risk from eating low levels of bute is low, but it is illegal in food products, and this incident raises questions about how much bute was in the Romanian horse meat that has illegally entered the UK food chain.
