South Africa study finds donkey meat sold as beef.

Surprise - South Africa study finds donkey meat sold as beef.(BBC).Donkey, water buffalo and goat meat have been sold as burgers and sausages in South Africa, a study says.

A study published by the local Stellenbosch University found that 99 of 139 samples contained species not declared in the product label.

It found soya and gluten were not labelled in 28% of products tested, undeclared pork in 37% and chicken in 23%.This was mostly in sausages, burger patties and deli meats, it said.

The disclosure comes at a time of a growing scandal in Europe about horsemeat being sold as beef.

On Monday, Swiss company Ikea withdrew meatballs from sale in 14 European countries after tests in the Czech Republic found traces of horsemeat in a batch made in Sweden.

Leading supermarkets in the UK, including Tesco and Sainsbury, have also withdrawn beef products from shelves after they were found to contain horsemeat.

"There's a fair share of fraudulent meat products on the South African market, according to a new study by meat scientists from Stellenbosch University," the university reports on its news blog.

"The study found that anything from soya, donkey, goat and water buffalo were to be found in up to 68% of the 139 minced meats, burger patties, deli meats, sausages and dried meats that were tested. In other cases, even undeclared plant matter was detected."

None of the meat mislabelled in South Africa is harmful to humans if consumed, correspondents say.

Hmmmm........Strange i kept saying that there aren't that many horses around in the first place.Read the full story here.





Looking a bit more into the genetics involved, horses have 32 pairs of chromosomes while donkeys have only 31 pairs. When a male donkey and a female horse mate, they produce a mule (a male horse with a female donkey produces a different creature called a hinny). A mule has 31-paired chromosomes as well as an extra chromosome from its horse mother that is not paired. Hmmmm.....And supposedly the tests for horse DNA might not differentiate from donkey/mule/donkey DNA.

Related:  "Halal or Haram?" We all knew! We knew the horsemeat scandal sweeping through Europe would inevitably come to Turkey.