Europe's growing horse meat problem escalated Friday as Britain's food regulator said that new testing had found the Bell's beef supply tainted with it.
Taco Bell parent company Yum Brands said the horsemeat issue is limited to the UK market, and that it will step up testing of its beef going forward.
Europe's horsemeat scandal erupted in January, when testing in Ireland revealed that some ground beef products sold there contained equine DNA.
Burger King horsemeat samples were also found in February.
The tainted beef epidemic continues to ensnare numerous well-known brands, prompting product withdrawals, consumer concerns and government investigations.
Britain's Food Standards Agency (FSA) said on Friday it had conducted 1,797 tests over the last seven days, 99 percent of which were negative.
However, four tests were positive, it said. Four too many.
They were for Taco Bell ground beef, beef skewers made by catering company Brakes, and Birds Eye ready meals - spaghetti bolognese and beef lasagne.
The Birds Eye meals were withdrawn from sale last week after tests on a product the company sold in Belgium via the same supplier came back positive.
Taco Bell tested meat at its UK restaurants as soon as news of the horsemeat contamination surfaced, spokesman Christopher Fuller said in a statement.
Taco Bell, like many other companies, cannot say for certain whether any of the horsemeat-tainted product was served to consumers, he saod.
The chain will test every batch of beef when it arrives at its processor and again before it is delivered to restaurants to make sure it is 100 percent beef.
"We apologize to our customers and take this very seriously," he added.
For Yum, food contamination hasn't been limited to ground beef, either.
Its nearly 5,300 KFC restaurants in China have seen business plummet after news reports and government investigations found chemical residue in its chicken supply.
The horse meat scandal has not extended to the U.S., at least not yet, but given the complexities of the food supply chain, you have to wonder.
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