Horse meat discovery knocks £300m off Tesco market value

by liamssoft | January 16, 2013 at 11:57 am

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Tesco shares were among the heaviest fallers on the FTSE 100 after samples taken from beef burgers sold in the supermarket discovered traces of horse meat.

Shares in the company lost 1.1pc this morning, knocking about £300m off the market value of the group and underperforming London's benchmark index which declined by 0.5pc.The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), which carried out the tests, said that the burgers containing horse DNA were produced in two plants in Ireland and one in the UK.

Tests on beef products sold in Lidl, Aldi, Iceland and Dunnes Stores also discovered low levels of the animal’s DNA.

Horse meat was found to account for about 29pc of the meat in Tesco Everyday Value Beef Burgers. The company said last night that it was immediately withdrawing all fresh and frozen burgers from its shelves, regardless of whether they had contained traces of horse DNA.....Read more