Horse and donkey meat discovered in ready-to-eat products in Tbilisi

The Food Security Service of Georgia (FSS) collected a number of food products such as kebabs, meatballs, pancakes and basturmas from Tbilisi stores – of the 20 items collected, nine were found to contain horse and/or donkey meat.

Seven companies were found to have been selling horse and/or donkey meat in products which were labeled as ‘containing beef/pork’. They have been fined 1 000 lari.

This is not the first time the FSS had uncovered products containing horse and donkey meat that were falsely labeled.

On 19 December 2017, 12 companies were fined for similar activities.

Georgian legislation does not forbid the sale of horse or donkey meat. However, if either are included in a food item it must be indicated. However, suppliers sometimes fail to do so because these kinds of meat are not popular in Georgia, with few consumers willing to buy ‘khinkali with donkey meat’ or ‘meatballs with horse meat’.

The FSS has been conducting such studies since March 2017. Samples of ready-made dishes and other items are taken from food vendors and stores and an analysis is conducted in accredited laboratories. The agency has discovered several violations since it started operating.

Experts say that fining these companies is not significant, and that the penalties put to such companies which violate the law are not severe enough as they do not serve to prevent them from acting similarly in the future.