A GOVERNMENT Minister has hit out at the hypocrisy of Tesco of keeping Manx meat off its shelves.
It comes after the supermarket giant had to remove products contaminated with horse meat from its shelves from stores across the British Isles, including the Lake Road store in Douglas.
Environment, Food and Agriculture Minister Phil Gawne MHK said: ‘It’s hard for the lay man not to see this as hypocritical.’
Tesco stopped selling Manx meat after it raised concerns about auditing standards and the physical state of the abattoir building last February.
In August, Isle of Man Meats, which runs the abattoir, announced it had gained approval in principle to resume supply after resolving outstanding technical issues ‘several weeks ago’.
Mr Gawne said it was hoped that Manx meat would be back on Tesco shelves by the end of the month.
He said: ‘Clearly it’s a very embarrassing situation for them (Tesco) but it demonstrates that having overly elaborate systems of checking and auditing doesn’t necessarily guarantee what is on the labels.’
It compares with Manx meat where ‘it is absolutely clearwhere the meat comes from’.
He said: ‘The meat is a very local product. We can guarantee where it comes from.
‘We are almost on the level that we can know each field the animal has grazed.’
At the Douglas shop, two products confirmed to have been affected have been removed – Tesco Everyday Value 8 x Frozen Beef Burgers (397g), and Tesco 4 x Frozen Beef Quarter Pounders (454g).
Tesco placed full-page adverts in a number of national UK newspapers on Thursday apologising for selling beefburgers that were found to contain horse meat.
The supermarket giant said it and its supplier had let customers down and promised to find out ‘what happened’.
On Tuesday, it emerged Irish food inspectors had found 29 per cent horse meat in one brand sold by Tesco.
Officials said the contaminated products posed no risk to human health and had been removed from shop shelves.
