Supermac's confident of beef in its burgers

The results of a second round of tests carried out on Supermac’s beef burgers will be published later this week as the fast-food chain seeks to reassure customers that its products have not been contaminated with equine DNA.

Rangeland Foods has supplied Supermac’s with burgers for more than 30 years but earlier this week announced it had ceased production after a sample at its Monaghan processing plant tested positive for horse DNA.

The restaurant chain’s chief executive Pat McDonagh yesterday repeated his assurance that customers had never been sold burgers containing anything but beef although he admitted consumer confidence had been shaken by the scandal.

Mr McDonagh said the latest round of DNA tests were being carried out as a precaution and stressed that apart from “natural seasonings”, the only ingredient in the burgers sold by Supermac’s was Irish beef, which was fully traceable and approved by Bord Bia.

He said sales of beef burgers at Supermac’s had fallen by more than 10 per cent in the three weeks since horse DNA was found in burger meat produced at Irish processing plants. A significant number of customers were switching to alternatives to beef, he said.

However, he repeated his assertion that no contaminated meat had ever made its way into its outlets and expressed confidence that the latest round of DNA tests would be clear.

He described Supermac’s as a “very good customer” of Rangeland. “They know how important our custom is and how important sourcing Irish beef is to us. Our contracts are very substantial and I do not think they would want to do anything to endanger them.”