January 14, 2014    

Following the discovery of horse meat in hamburgers, frozen meals and other food products containing meat in the UK, British consumers still carry the impact of the said incident till now.

According to an Ipsos-MORI survey, nearly 31% of British adults have changed their food buying habits in the last 12 months, and 95% of adults in the UK remember the food-supply incident. Additionally, sales of frozen burgers and frozen prepared meals - the two items most affected by the scandal - declined 7.2% and 7.6% respectively, according to The Guardian citing analysis from Kantar.

It also found that consumer confidence was shaken by the incident - 'betrayal of trust' was mentioned by 53% of respondents, followed by 'lack of control' at 48% and lack of answers/accountability at 34% of consumers.

Tesco was most affected among the many retailers affected by the horse meat scandal, according to Ipsos. About 20% of the consumers now view the retailer less favourably. Iceland was next at 14%.

"The horsemeat scandal of 2013 is still fresh in the minds of many," said Stephen Yap, head of Ipsos MarketQuest. "The frozen-food industry in particular, Tesco and Iceland are most closely associated with the scandal and their reputations have yet to make a full recovery. It is clear that public confidence will take a long while yet to recover."

An audit by the National Audit Office (NAO) found that the UK's food policy contributed to a failure to recognise the heightened risk of adulterated food products entering the food chain. The NAO reported that the horse meat scandal exposed weaknesses in government controls of the food supply chain, and showed the complexity of the supply chain. The original source of the adulteration has never been identified.