Beef burgers by The Food House.Beef burgers by The Food House.

Four brands of beef products have been recalled by the health directorate because they contain undeclared pork and horsemeat.

The Environmental Health Directorate yesterday said it recalled beef sausages by Chef’s Choice and The British Premium Sausage Co., and beef burgers by The Food House and Scott’s Supermarket, citing “misleading product description”.

The directorate found undeclared horsemeat and pork in Chef’s Choice beef sausages frozen-packed in 1,000g plastic bags in quantities of 20. They carry a use-by date of February 2, 2014.

Undeclared pork was also found in frozen British Premium sausages packed in 454g plastic black trays (lot B114-08), frozen beef burgers by The Food House packed in white trays (packed on March 1 and carrying use-by date of February 28, 2014), and fresh beef burgers by Scott’s Supermarket (packed on April 3 and carrying a use-by date of April 9) in black trays.

The companies involved were instructed to withdraw these products from the market but some may already have been purchased, the directorate warned.

It is the second time that a product by Chef’s Choice has been recalled, after its beef burgers were taken off the market last month for containing the non-declared ingredients of chicken and pork.

When contacted, Chef’s Choice director Joseph Mizzi firmly denied the directorate’s findings, saying his products “do not contain any ingredients other than those shown on its label” and that the directorate’s conclusions were “incorrect”.

He added that the health authorities had taken a sample of the product last February. When the authorities communicated their findings, Chef’s Choice asked for further tests.

However, the authorities replied they were unable to do so as no further samples of the product had been taken.

The entire batch had been purchased, Mr Mizzi said, or otherwise the company would have conducted the tests itself.

“The company reserves the right to sue for damages,” he told Times of Malta.

A spokesman from the health directorate outlined the sampling process, where samples are randomly selected during market surveillance or, alternatively, through a sampling programme in which the department’s labo­ratory recommended a specific number of samples to be selected.

“We work on the principle of due diligence. If a company fails to take the necessary measures while reporting that it did so, then the company may be fined or taken to court.”

The health directorate recalled two beef products last month and a consignment of Italian lasagne in March after they were found to contain undeclared chicken, pork and horsemeat.

When contacted, Consumers Association president Benny Borg Bonello said he felt frustrated that undeclared ingredients were becoming a repeated occurrence.

“Are the authorities and manufacturers merely testing their products, or are they actually looking into the manufacturing process? It is primarily the responsibility of the manufacturer to examine the process to ensure no other ingredients infiltrate.”

He advocated a more stringent monitoring system. “It’s not enough that the authorities merely inform us – we need preventive action. The authorities need to help out.

“The manufacturing process is clearly not up to standard.”

“It’s true that other undeclared meats pose no health hazards. It becomes more of a serious matter for certain religions.

“However, if a product is marked as beef, then it should contain beef – period.”

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.