Consumer perceptions
of the horse meat
burger incident
A VIZZATA case study
The Issue
On 15th January 2013 the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI)
announced the findings of their investigation into the authenticity of meat
products on the Irish market. In testing 27 beef burger products, 10 had
tested positive for horse DNA and 23 had tested positive for pig DNA.
Most of the burgers were found to have very low levels of DNA, however one burger product was found to
contain 29% horse DNA. The contaminated products were traced back to 3 food producers: 2 in Ireland
and 1 in the UK. A number of retailers in Ireland and in the UK, including Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, Dunnes Stores,
and Iceland, removed all the beef burger products in question from the market.
On 28th January, the FSAI announced that the source of the contamination had been traced back to raw
materials used in Poland. The FSAI communications stressed that there was no health risk. Widespread
media attention within Ireland and the UK focused on issues such as traceability, labelling, and
reputational risks to Ireland’s beef industry.
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What we did
On 17th January 2013, we decided to use VIZZATA to investigate what questions and concerns
consumers might have about the incident and find out what they thought of the official statements that
had been released. We decided on our recruitment criteria and contacted Toluna, our partner recruitment
company (www.toluna-group.com) who started recruiting participants from Ireland and UK the same
evening.
On 18th January we finalized the content of our study. This consisted of 5 information pages (termed
‘content testers’) and some final open-ended questions about the incident. The information pages
included the original FSAI press release from 15th January, an update from the FSA UK from 18th
January, an overview of the media reports on the incident, a youtube video of the Irish Agriculture Minister
explaining the incident, and the public apology from Tesco from 16th January. The participants had the
opportunity to ask questions and make comments about each content tester.
On 19th January we went live with the VIZZATA study.
Over the next 48 hours 22 consumers from the Republic of Ireland and 22 consumers from the UK, all
meat eaters and all shopping in at least one of the affected retailers, participated in our VIZZATA study.
They left a total of 292 questions and comments in relation to the material in the content testers. On 21st
January Part One of our VIZZATA study was complete.
Over 22-23rd January we worked on grouping the questions and comments. Drawing on official sources
we prepared information in response to them. These responses were sent to participants on 23rd and on
24th January.
On 25th January the participants were invited to the second phase of the study and they completed this
by 27th January. The second part of the study contained some open-ended questions on their views
about how the event had unfolded in the last week as well as some questions evaluating their thoughts
about the study itself. Again, our participants responded with 9 questions and 47 comments. In the quotes
below we indicate the country, gender, and age or age group of the participants.
What did we find out?
People wanted to know why the burgers were tested.
Was this done for a reason or was it part of the routine
procedure for testing meat products?
that hasn’t been tested for long period of
“How often are these tests
actually run? Is it possible the
horse and pig meat had been
going in to the burgers for a very
long time till it was discovered?”
time? (IRISH FEMALE, 36-40)
(UK FEMALE, 33)
• The main question is how come these
imported ingredients are not being tested
prior to use? How can we be sure what’s in
any of our food? How often are these tests
carried out? What else have we consumed
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• How good then are the tests and checks, which
should be carried out, at the production stage?
Should this not have been found before the
product reached the point of sale?
(UK FEMALE, 59)
• How regularly are these production plants visited,
inspected and their products tested?
(IRISH FEMALE, 51+)
People wanted to know how foods and food
ingredients are traced to their sources
• I understand that Poland has supplied this meat
- is that correct? If so does it mean that any
European country can supply food that is NOT up
to our regulations/standards? (UK FEMALE, 73)
• Why is it so hard to find out if they (processing
plants) share the same suppliers when they are
owned by the same company, surely they should
have records? (UK FEMALE, 41)
People wanted to know how contamination happens
• How did traces of horse DNA get into burgers?
Was it in the feed of animals? (UK FEMALE, 42)
• When slaughtering animals in these plants, do they
not scrub them down to stop cross contamination
between pigs and cows? (IRISH MALE, 41-50)
• To what extent were Liffey Meats, Dalepak and
Silvercrest Foods involved in the addition of the
horse and pig DNA? Or were they aware what
was in the additives at all? If not, why not? (IRISH
FEMALE, 31-35)
“Could the DNA be there
because machinery has
not been cleaned correctly
between the different uses
of the meat? For example,
making dog or cat food then
making burgers.”
(UK FEMALE, 36)
People wanted to know why they were not told about
the results of the tests earlier
• The addition of horse meat in these burgers was
discovered last November 2012, is it acceptable
that it has only come to public knowledge in
January 2013? (IRISH FEMALE 51+)
• Why did the F.S.A. take so long to investigate?
(UK FEMALE, 59)
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of the tests? Why the delay and what were they
Do we not do such testing
in UK? Why is the system
novel? What does this
mean, were the tests on
burgers only? Why the
delay?
covering up? It just seems a bit suspicious to be
(UK MALE, 74)
• Why did the Irish Government not issue a statement
in November/December stating that tests were being
carried out? Again, cloak and dagger secrecy by our
government. No health risk as may be but certainly
ethically wrong? (IRISH FEMALE, 31-35)
• The main question I want to ask is why did the Irish
government wait 5 weeks to announce the results
honest. (IRISH FEMALE, 41-50)
People wanted to know how long has this situation
had been going on for
• Is there any way that it can be ascertained how long
this has been going on? (UK MALE, 60)
• How long have we been consuming such
adulterated meat? (IRISH FEMALE, 31-35)
• For how long was the practice going on before it
was detected? (IRISH MALE, 31-35)
People wanted to know what would happen next and
who will be held accountable
• How can they stop this from happening again? How
can they be absolutely certain that it won’t happen
again? (UK FEMALE, 36)
• How will the meat companies be affected because
of this? Will it cause closure? Or will it be just seen
as a small glitch?
(IRISH FEMALE, 25-30)
• What will happen if this turns out to be an illegal
label change? How will they be prosecuted and will
“Shall we see criminal
charges brought against
these companies whose
products tested positive
for pig and horse DNA
additives?”
(IRISH FEMALE, 51+)
it just be fines or sentencing?
(UK FEMALE, 33)
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What did people think about
the horsemeat and burgers
VIZZATA study?
this sort of survey come study allows you to interact
“It is a real breath of fresh air.
Normally the studies or surveys
that I take part in do not allow
the option of asking questions.
They ask the questions
and have a few options for
the answers, obviously the
answers they want to hear.”
on the subject, maybe it’s something that should be
(UK MALE, 63)
People valued the opportunity to ask questions about
the contamination of beef burgers.
• The politicians and managers of the companies give
reassurances that everything is okay. They
ignore our own questions and don’t give anybody
the opportunity to question to entire picture.
(IRISH MALE, 31-35)
• Because we all see these sorts of incidents on the
news, where your only option is to watch and listen,
done more often.
(IRISH MALE, 41-50)
• This study was extremely interesting to me and I
found it to be engaging. Thank you for the invitation
to participate.
(IRISH FEMALE, 31-35)
• I have enjoyed doing this survey. I’m not sure how
common it is to do this on such major topical issues
but more like this can only be a good thing to give
people the chance to express legitimate concerns.
(UK MALE, 45)
People found it useful to do a study like this online.
• There is no interruption - when a discussion takes
place many people talk over other people and a
critical point may be lost.
(IRISH FEMALE, 51+)
• It’s perfect because people are less concerned
about saying what they really think as there is a
certain amount of anonymity online, and I can
phrase my questions better when I write them.
(UK MALE, 41)
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“It is much easier to think of
questions that need to be
asked and make comments
pertinent to the topic, when
a person can choose a
time that suits them best to
partake in the study.”
(IRISH FEMALE, 51+)
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• I think it would be a good thing to have more studies
like this one. I have found the whole experience more
satisfying than I thought I would. I got answers to my
questions and more information on why it may have
happened and what is being done and is ongoing
into solving why it happened in the first place. So I
think there should be more studies like this without
there having to be an issue in the first place.
(IRISH FEMALE, 41-50)
People found the feedback they received was useful.
• I had heard and read so much I was beginning to
get confused but your feedback gave me the true
picture. (IRISH FEMALE, 51+)
• Your answers made me think again about my own
opinions and made me more aware of the way we
should be looking at our food and the labelling what is seasoning really for example.
(UK FEMALE, 59)
• The responses put me right about a few aspects of
the issue. (IRISH MALE, 41-50)
“Your replies to my questions
and comments were more
than adequate, they were
very in-depth and I felt they
personally responded to my
actual questions instead of
generic replies.”
(IRISH FEMALE, 31-35)
• It gave me an insight of how things may have
happened and maybe how things will be changed for
the future. (UK MALE, 60)
Contact
Julie Barnett
Professor in Health Research
Brunel University, London
[email protected]
CREDITS
This study was conducted as part of the FP7 FoodRisC project by the University
College Dublin, Brunel University, Ghent University and White October.
It was performed using the VIZZATA tool, a new method of online research created
by Brunel University, University of Surrey, Brook Lyndhurst and White October.
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