Industry News

Xie Hua, a Muslim politician from the Birmingham Ladywood constituency·Speaking to ANSA news agency, Mahmoud said he would write to the prime minister and secretary of state to report the urgent situation of pork protein found in beef burgers imported from Ireland, which has not yet been declared.

Prime Minister David·In a statement to the House of Commons, Cameron said "sellers have a duty to inform customers of the details of their products".

The product adulteration incident has garnered widespread attention, prompting the UK's Food Standards Agency to investigate whether the sellers were aware of the adulteration. Further investigation is needed regarding the fact that the sellers claimed their products came from factories certified by the British Retail Consortium. These factories have now violated standards and are therefore subject to re-inspection and re-audit, as their products are seriously non-compliant. The UK's Food Standards Agency has a responsibility to determine whether the fault lies with the manufacturer, the seller, or both. It's important to note that the Irish Financial Services Authority, while fully aware of the situation as early as November 2012, only informed the public in the second week of January this year.

This action violates secular law and the authorities have a responsibility to investigate and expel the products, regardless of whether they are halal or not.

It is unacceptable for a manufacturer that strictly follows Halal slaughtering methods and is certified by the Food Standards Agency of Ireland to fail to inform consumers of this fact or to label it.

This practice is not accepted because some communities are reluctant to buy and consume halal meat and are unwilling to be forced to consume halal food without their knowledge.

The Muslim community will raise this issue as a matter of urgency in writing to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State through the intervention of Councillor Shea. Ladywood voters also stressed the need to investigate and inform the public of when and how the fraud occurred.

ANSA had previously spoken to Birmingham's Environmental Health Department about the panic caused by the pork content in beef burgers, but was told it had no jurisdiction to investigate the matter because the slaughterhouse producing the products was not based in the Birmingham area - even though the frozen products containing pork could have been consumed by residents of Birmingham's Muslim community.

The head of environmental services told the association that although large quantities of halal beef products (which may contain pork) were imported from Ireland and used in Birmingham's halal fast food restaurants, no DNA testing had been carried out on these products due to financial constraints.

As relevant consumers, we ask the Food Standards Agency to formally notify the entire community of the suspected products and inform consumers of their trademarks so that they can identify them and remove them from their refrigerators. This is because the products involved are frozen foods, and the shelf life of frozen foods is 12 months.

We, the Muslim community, hope to·Councillor Mahmood's intervention should bring the frozen meat incident to a swift conclusion. Because frozen products are easily accessible to middle schools, universities, and hospitals, all brands should be re-certified and rebranded to meet consumers' halal dietary requirements.

We await the results of ANSA's investigation into how horse meat and pork were mixed into beef burgers and other frozen foods to ensure this doesn't happen again. We also hope the government will implement random DNA testing on all halal products to ensure their quality. ANSA is also concerned about co-production of products, which may combine British and imported halal and non-halal meats. Therefore, we call for a public discussion of this process and for clearer labeling to indicate whether all community products were slaughtered halal. British consumers have the right to know how their meat was slaughtered and processed.

"There is a consensus on labelling. All meat must be clearly labelled, indicating whether the slaughter method was halal, including whether it was electroshocked, head-on or anesthetised."

We hope the Food Standards Agency will conduct a thorough investigation, remove products that have been certified as non-compliant and notify Muslims to remove contaminated products from their refrigerators and not consume them.