Asda has withdrawn tens of thousands of its own brand corned beef tinned products after discovering they were 50% horse meat.

The grocer pulled the £1.54 tins two weeks ago after Leicestershire County Council said it found one batch was half horse meat. Asda said it had only found levels of up to 5% in internal tests, The Sun reported.

The Smart Price value corned beef was made by French supplier Toupnot and represents the eighth Asda product to test positive for horse DNA. Three of its beef products have had pork DNA.

The corned beef discovery is the latest product to be found to contain horse DNA after an extensive testing programme has found beef products sold in retailers including Tesco, Aldi, Lidl containted horse meat.