A Whopper from Burger King: Initial Denial, but Now Admits to Horse Meat Allegations

After initially issuing a denial, fast food chain Burger King has admitted that traces of horse meat were found at one of its European processing plants. It assures U.S. consumers, however, that this market is in no way affected.

"The fast food chain, which has more than 500 UK outlets, had earlier given a series of ‘absolute assurances’ that its products were not involved," the Daily Mail reported.

The traces of equine DNA were found at Silvercrest, an Irish subsidiary of ABP Food Group. An investigation determined the company had been selling beef mixed with horse meat.

ABC News reports that Silvercrest provided meat to all of Burger King’s restaurants in Ireland, the U.K. and Denmark. 

The chain immediately stopped using Silvercrest and switched to a different supplier, the article stated.

According to the Daily Mail, the scandal threatens to erode the confidence of UK consumers in the restaurant chain. 

"Burger King has faced allegations of orchestrating a cover-up of its links to the horsemeat scandal in order to give it time to find an alternative supplier," the Daily Mail reports. "It is currently shipping in tens of thousands of burgers from suppliers in Germany and Italy in order to meet demand at its UK outlets."

In the meantime, Burger King has assured American consumers that locations in the United States are not supplied by Silvercrest.

"We have stringent and overlapping controls to ensure that the products we sell to our customers meet our strict quality standards," a company spokesperson told CNN.