Over a fifth of meat in Britain's restaurants and supermarkets contains 'unspecified animal' DNA
- Figure comes from a 2017 British Food Standards Agency (FSA) report
- 145 items of 665 sampled in consisted partly or wholly of unspecified meat
- Products came from 487 businesses, including restaurants and supermarkets
- The FSA said the results were consistent with 'deliberate inclusion'
Over a fifth of meat sample tests in British supermarkets and restaurants including sausages, burgers and pizzas contains 'unspecified meat' an alarming investigation has found.
In the second food contamination scandal to rock Britain in just five years, 145 items out of 665 tested in a Food Standards Agency (FSA) report contained animal DNA that was not listed on the packaging.
But the names of the 487 brands and shops implicated have not been revealed.
The results point to 'deliberate inclusion' of foreign meat, according to the FSA - possibly as part of a scam that stretches across the food sector.
The most highly contaminated items were fresh and cooked lamb products, with some curries and kebabs labelled as lamb made entirely from beef.
It follows the 2013 horsemeat scandal that shook Europe after horse DNA was found in several beef products sold on the continent.
The British Food Standards Agency (FSA) found 145 items out of 665 that it sampled in 2017 consisted partly or wholly of unspecified meat, it reported.
The FSA said the results, accessed under a freedom of information request by the BBC, were consistent with 'deliberate inclusion'.
But the agency added that the tests had deliberately targeted operations suspected of 'compliance issues'.
They were 'not representative of the wider food industry', an FSA spokesman told MailOnline.
Around half of the 145 contaminated samples came from retailers, which included three supermarkets, 50 belonged to restaurants and 22 originated from food manufacturers.
Around 85 per cent of contaminated samples were sold by either butchers or takeaway businesses.
