The Red Meat Industry Forum (RMIF) says it will press ahead with its investigation into the meat scandal which could result in prosecutions. The RMIF earlier said it was premature to release the names of the retailers implicated in the meat contamination study. 

Professor Louw Hoffman headed up a team of researchers from Stellenbosch University that had found traces of chicken, donkey, water buffalo and goat meat as well as soya in incorrectly labelled products.

The names of the retailers were supposed to remain confidential. RMIF Chairperson Dave Ford says, “If there are perpetrators, let the relevant authorities do an investigation and then let them follow their legislation, and if there is sufficient legislation and then to either prosecute or to remove the blame from this different individuals or these different retailers.”

“We feel that at this specific stage just to name and shame a number of retailers whether it could be cross-contamination is very premature, but we’re still going ahead from the forum side, supply this information to the relevant authorities as well as to the national consumer commission.”

Woolworths says they blame shared equipment for the contamination

Meanwhile, Woolworths says they blame shared equipment for the contamination. Woolworths Food Technologist Karen Carstensen says out of all the products tested, they only found their french polony to contain traces of chicken DNA that was not labelled.

A number of various meat industries were earlier in the year found to have labelled their red meat incorrectly, with traces of water buffalo, donkey and goat meat found in processed meat.

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