Just because the same equipment was used for mincing one type of meat and then another, for example, beef and then lamb, does not mean there should be any detectable beef in the lamb.
That was the findings of research carried out by the Laboratory of the Government Chemist and published by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in the UK.
The purpose of the research was to determine how much “contaminination” of one meat with another is expected from using the same equipment in order to set acceptable limits of said contamination and at what percentage it would need to be declared.
The FSA board met to discuss the findings and agreed that the current practise of reporting contamination levels of over 1% should continue. It is still being discussed what to do about levels of contamination below 1%.