Horsemeat Scandal:Tesco

Okay folks, thanks for stopping by! This week I’m going to talk about the still unfolding story of the horsemeat scandal. This story began in mid-January and just keeps growing and growing, with more and more stories coming out each week since. It arose when the Irish Food Safety Authority released the results of DNA testing on various meat producers in the country. The tests found that meat which had been supplied to the likes of Tesco,Aldi, Lidl, Dunnes, and Iceland contained a large percentage of horsemeat, some contained as much as 80% horsemeat. 

 It sparked uproar as consumers were shocked and disgusted by the fast that they were unknowingly for an unknown length of time. Since the discovery was made many other tests and reports have been done on the meat industry both in Ireland and England. It has now been discovered that numerous meat producers have been using equestrian meat, meat which has not been traced. Tesco Value products and Findus products were found to contain more than 80% horsemeat, this revelation has only come about in the past week, and with reports stating Findus lasagne contained 100% horsemeat.

Now to take a look at what this blog is mainly about, how the situation was handled on online media! I’m going to specifically focus on how Tesco handled it for this blog. On the 17th of January, one day after the test results had been reported, Tesco issued the following apology on both their website (www.tesco.ie) and on their Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/TescoIreland) :

We apologise.


You have probably read or heard that we have had a serious problem with three frozen beef burger products that we sell in stores in Ireland and the UK.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has told us that a number of products they have recently tested from one of our suppliers contained horsemeat.

While the FSAI has said that the products pose no risk to public health, we appreciate that, like us, our customers will find this absolutely unacceptable.

The products in our stores were; 
- Tesco Everyday Value 8 x Frozen Beef Burgers (397g), 
- Tesco 4 x Frozen Beef Quarter Pounders (454g) and a branded product, 
- FlamehouseFrozen Chargrilled Quarter Pounders.

We have immediately withdrawn from sale all products from the supplier in question, from all our stores and online. 

If you have any of these products in at home, you can take them back to any of our stores at any time and get a full refund. You will not need a receipt and you can just bring back the packaging.

We and our supplier have let you down and we apologise.

If you have any concerns, you can go to any of our customer service desks in-store, ask to speak to your local Store Manager or contact us by leaving a comment below or on our Customer Service hotline: 1850 744 844 and Email: customer.service@tesco.ie

So here’s our promise. We will find out exactly what happened and, when we do, we’ll come back and tell you.

And we will work harder than ever with all our suppliers to make sure this never happens again.

After analysing this statement in my opinion I think it was a good statement. They took responsibility, apologised for the situation and listed the products that were contaminated.

They had this apology up in stores nationwide and here is a picture that I took of the apology in my local store, proving they were making customers aware.

They also released a video of Group Technical Director, Tim Smith, talking about the matter on the 30th of January (find video here: http://www.tescoplc.com/index.asp?pageid=17&newsid=732 ) with another statement:

"Two weeks ago, on 16 January, we issued an unreserved apology to our customers because tests in Ireland found horse DNA in three Tesco frozen beef burger lines.

"We made a commitment to customers to investigate thoroughly and share the findings with them. Since then, we have been working hard to understand what happened and how we can stop it ever happening again.

"We now understand - with as much certainty as possible – what happened. The evidence tells us that our frozen burger supplier, Silvercrest, used meat in our products that did not come from the list of approved suppliers we gave them. Nor was the meat from the UK or Ireland, despite our instruction that only beef from the UK and Ireland should be used in our frozen beef burgers. Consequently we have decided not to take products from that supplier in future.  We took that decision with regret but the breach of trust is simply too great.

"Ultimately Tesco is responsible for the food we sell, so it is not enough just to stop using the supplier.

"We have a well-equipped, expert technical team and world-class checks in place but we will not take anything for granted after this incident.

"It has shown that, in spite of our stringent tests, checks and controls there remained a small possibility that something could go wrong and it did. We want to stop it ever happening again, so we are taking action to reduce that possibility still further.

"To underpin the strong measures already in place, we will now introduce a comprehensive system of DNA testing across our meat products. This will identify any deviation from our high standards. 

"These checks will set a new standard. It will be a significant investment for Tesco, borne by Tesco. We want to leave customers in no doubt that we will do whatever it takes to ensure the quality of their food and that the food they buy is exactly what the label says it is."

The company had the decency to admit responsibility and apologise once again and they stated what they are doing to resolve the problem. They did the right thing by informing their customers quickly after the problem had occurred and they targeted their audience correctly.

Hopefully they won’t find that anymore of their products contain horse DNA but more the meantime that’s all I have to say about their PR strategy, I may return to the topic at a later date if any more occurrences happen.

Thanks for reading!

Cici