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First horse meat was found in frozen "beef" burgers and ground beef in Ireland, then in IKEA's meatballs in the Czech Republic, and now donkey, goat and buffalo meat has been found in ground beef, burgers and deli meats in South Africa, fueling the need for more food regulation and better labeling.

According to a new study by meat scientists from Stellenbosch University," there's a fair share of fraudulent meat products on the South African market," they wrote in blog post on the university's website on Monday.

"The study found that anything from soya, donkey, goat and water buffalo were to be found in up to 68% of the 139 minced meats, burger patties, deli meats, sausages and dried meats that were tested. In other cases, even undeclared plant matter was detected."

South African consumers, as in the case with the Irish and Czech horse meat scandal, purchase and consume the products unknowingly.

The study was published in the international Food Control journal and led by Donna-Maree Cawthorn and Louw Hoffman of the Stellenbosch University's department of animal sciences.

"Our study confirms that the mislabelling of processed meats is commonplace in South Africa and not only violates food labelling regulations, but also poses economic, religious, ethical and health impacts," said Hoffman.

"Unconventional species such as donkey, goat and water buffalo were also discovered in a number of products."

The study also found that many times when it said meat on the label, large traces of other unlabeled meat was in the product. Pork (37%) and chicken (23%) were the most commonly detected animal species in products that were not supposed to contain them.

Meanwhile, US officials have reassured Americans that there is no potential horse meat in meat products as it's not brought into the country for consumption.

"There are currently no establishments in the United States that slaughter horses, and FSIS does not allow imports of horse meat from other countries for human consumption," said Brian Mabry, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service in a statement, according to ABC News. "None of the countries and companies referenced in the EU export beef to the United States."

However, Congress did not extend a ban on horse slaughter in 2011 which was previously regulated, but since the ban has been lifted, there are still are no protocols for the USDA to conduct inspections.