Bahrain’s health ministry has removed from market scores of canned meat products after a probe revealed they were “contaminated” with horse meat and pork.

The ministry earlier launched an investigation to collect samples of meat from the local markets, which were tested at its laboratories, Xinhua reported.

After testing 172 products, including minced meat, burgers and frozen meat, the ministry said it found horse meat and pork mixed with beef in several canned products.

“A total of 22 contaminated imported and processed meat products were found in the market. 16 products were found to have horse meat and six with pork,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said it will intensify tests of imported meat products to ensure they are “halal” (permissible to be eaten by Muslims).