Swedish body tests for pig DNA contaminants

The Swedish National Food Agency (NFA) has announced that it has started testing meat products for undeclared pig DNA as part of its efforts to combat fraud in the food industry.

The NFA said it would test approximately 100 meat products that were not labelled as containing pork, and post the results on its website.

“We will analyse whether there are products containing pork which should not contain pork. If we discover that there has been any cheating in the content or labelling, the responsible enforcement agencies will obtain information so they can take action against the company,” said Jan Sjögren, head of the NFA.

The agency added that it had already tested hundreds of different meat products for horse DNA, but had not found any contamination. It had also taken 27 samples of horsemeat at licensed slaughterhouses and none had contained the veterinary drug phenylbutazone.