Transcript Horsemeat scandal

Horsemeat scandal
Food scandals
Outline
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General remarks
Countries
Health risks
Analytic method
Reactions
General remarks
• foods advertised as containing beef were found to contain
undeclared horsemeat
• came to light on 15 January 2013
• horse DNA had been discovered in frozen beef burgers sold in British
supermarkets
• Also found pig meat  taboo food to the Muslim and Jewish
• Horsemeat from Romania is less expensive
Countries
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Germany
Great Britain
Austria
Switzerland
Czechia
Health risks
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Horse meat is usually not harmful to health
harmful ingredients like Phenylbutazone found
used as doping agent for sports horses
500–600 burgers containing 100% horsemeat
would need to be eaten to receive the daily human therapeutic dose
Analytic method: double gel diffusion
• Diffusion from antigen and antibody in agar culture media
• Formation of precipitation at optimum conditions  visible as line
Analysis at an example
• Ag1: postive analyt of horsemeat
• Ag2: unknown analyt of meat
• As: Antiserum of horsemeat
• Compare the lines
• a) homogeneous line schows identity
 Ag2 is horsemeat
• b) only one line between the positiv analyt
 Ag2 is no horsemeat
a)
b)
Reactions
• EU agriculture ministers announced a three-month programme of DNA
testing of processed meat across the European Union
• 23 May 2013 Willy Selten was arrested for selling 300 tonnes of horsemeat as
beef
• Up to 20 people were arrested
• Consumer protection minister of Germany want tighter requirement to label
• to expensive for the consumers  no changes until today!
summerizing
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15 January 2013 it came to light that foods contain undeclared horsemeat
Found horsemeat in beefburgers, lasagne, goulash and doner kebab
Involved countries: Germany, Great Britain, Austria, Czechia and Switzerland
horsemeat is not harmful to health but a taboo food in many countries
but veterinary drug phenylbutazone has entered the food supply chain
Analytic methods: double gel diffusion, DNA analysis
Consumer protection minister want a tighter requirement to label  to expensive
Indication of source
• http://img.allvoices.com/thumbs/image/609/609/96338373-horse-meat•
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scandal.jpg
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-25715666
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylbutazon
http://www.topagrar.com/news/Home-top-News-Pferdefleischskandal-2014-stehtvor-der-Tuer-1344661.html
http://www.chm.tu-dresden.de/lc/praktikum/lc2/folien_immun_2012.pdf
http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/ein-jahr-nach-dem-pferdefleischskandal-ist-inder-eu-wenig-passiert-a-951882.html