ST. LOUIS -- Ralston Purina Co., owner of the Jack-in-the-Box chain of fast-food restaurants, said Wednesday none of the restaurants served horse or kangaroo meat in their hamburgers.
Spokesman James Reed said he was 'absolutely confident that no horse meat reached our customers.'
Reed said the company has switched to domestic beef since discovering horse meat in part of a shipment from Profreeze, an Australian supplier.
'We have gone entirely to domestic beef and we have decided to destroy the entire shipment from Profreeze -- even though most of it was 100 percent beef -- just to reassure Jack-in-the-Box customers of a quality product,' he said.
Mislabeled and adulterated imports apparently have been coming into the United States for several months, said Agriculture Secretary John R. Block.
The department is requiring the Australian government to test meat before it is shipped and to keep it under government supervision until it reaches this country.
Australian authorities last week discovered kangaroo meat in a shipment bound for the United States.
'USDA inspectors and some of our inspectors found three boxes that didn't look quite right out of a shipment of 605 boxes,' Reed said.
'The remaining 602 boxes were passed by USDA for further processing and processed into patties at the Foodmaker plant in San Diego for distribution to restaurants in California and the southwestern part of the United States.'
Foodmaker is a Ralston Purina subsidiary that owns the restaurant chain. The Foodmaker plant produces frozen beef patties and cooked taco filling for Jack-in-the-Box.
