Horsemeat Investigation Spreads Across EU
Citing public concerns about the presence of horsemeat in beef products,
European Union (EU) Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner Tonio Borg
recently called an emergency meeting of agricultural ministers and urged
member states to conduct random DNA testing on processed beef products
for three months beginning March 1, 2013. The measure builds on an ongoing
investigation initiated by the U.K. Food Safety Agency (FSA) and Food Safety
Authority of Ireland, which first reported finding equine and porcine DNA in
beef products in January 2013 and have since ramped up testing protocols
after other member states, including France and Germany, allegedly received
contaminated products from suppliers across the European Union. See
European Food Safety Authority, February 11, 2013.
According to various media reports, retailers in 16 countries have sold mislabeled horsemeat to millions of consumers, a development that has prompted officials to demand criminal sanctions against those deemed responsible for what French President François Hollande called an “abuse of profits and unacceptable behavior.” Regulators have apparently traced some of the meat in question from local suppliers through distributors in France, Cyprus and the Netherlands, and ultimately to abattoirs in Romania. “There are plants and companies in Romania exporting horsemeat but everything was according to the standards, and the source and the kind of meat was very clearly put as being horsemeat,” Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta told two reporters in separate interviews. “We checked all the production facilities, and it’s now very clear that no fraud has been committed by Romanian companies or under Romanian territory.” See The Irish Examiner and The New York Times, February 11, 2013; BBC News, February 11 and 13, 2013; Associated Press, February 13, 2013.
Meanwhile, FSA has already raided one meat plant in West Yorkshire suspected of supplying horse carcasses to another processor and made arrests at both companies. “I ordered an audit of all horse producing abattoirs in the U.K. after this issue first arose last month and I was shocked to uncover what appears to be a blatant misleading of consumers,” said FSA Director of Operations Andrew Rhodes. “I have suspended both plants immediately while our investigations continued.” See FSA Press Releases, February 12 and 14, 2013.
Additional details about the horsemeat investigation appear in issues 467,
469 and 470 of this Update.
