Horse meat eaten without the knowledge of the consumer, due to accidental or fraudulent introduction of horse meat into human food. A 2003 Food Standards Agency (FSA) investigation revealed that certain sausages, salami and similar products such as chorizo and pastrami sometimes contain horse meat without it being listed, although listing is legally required. The 2013 horse meat scandal involved multiple products being recalled from shelves due to unlabelled horse meat in amounts up to 100% of the meat content. The issue came to light on 15 January 2013, when it was reported that horse DNA had been discovered in frozen beefburgers
Criticism of Tesco the SFO, who took matter out of the hands of the Financial Conduct Authority, the City's business regulator. The UK accountancy regulator, the Financial Reporting Council, is also reported to be monitoring Tesco. Tesco's auditor PwC declined to comment. It found that they were overstated by £118m in the first half of this year, by £70m in the 2013-2014 financial year and by £75m before that. Warwick Business School's Prof Crawford Spence said: "Now that Tesco are being investigated for fraud by the SFO, the Financial Reporting Council have yet greater reason to start an investigation into the auditors' role