Food fraud is still rife in Britain despite the horsegate scandal, with almost one in five meat products containing DNA from other animals, it can be revealed.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said local authorities carried out 69 tests between June 2018 and May 2019 and found 12 products were contaminated with “unspecified meat or DNA species not declared on the label”.

The shocking results – revealed in a Freedom of Information request to the FSA by our sister paper the Daily Mirror – found meat labelled ham contained no ham, while lamb doner kebabs had no lamb.

Six years after horsegate hit the headlines, shoppers and diners are still being duped by unscrupulous businesses fobbing them off with cheaper cuts of meat such as substituting beef for lamb.

Targeted tests carried out by local trading standards officers on premises ranging from factories and slaughter houses to retailers, restaurants and caterers found cases where up to three different types of meat were found in products like pepperoni.

Tests on pepperoni, which the FSA said should be “pork and beef”, contained no pork but was a mix of beef, chicken and turkey.

Restaurant ham was found to be turkey meat as results revealed “DNA from pig meat was not detected”.

Worringly, “slimmers pork bbq sausages” that claimed to be less than three per cent fat had more than twice as much, with seven per cent fat found.

Yesterday, experts branded the results “shocking”, especially after the horsegate crisis in 2013, when products including supermarket beef burgers and ready meals were found to contain horse meat.

Sue Davies, strategic policy adviser for consumer champion Which? said: “People must be able to trust the label on the food they buy, so it is essential the Government and local authorities clamp down on food fraud and uphold food standards.”

The FSA said local authorities carried out “targeted food sampling at businesses where mislabelling is more likely” and added it was “not representative of the wider food industry”.

A spokesperson added: “Where samples show a product has been mislabelled, it will be investigated and appropriate action will be taken.”

Misleading labels are an offence under the Food Safety Act of 1990. The maximum penalty is two years in jail, an unlimited fine – or both.