Horsemeat Scandal: Germany Pulls Lasagne off Shelves
BBC News 14 Feb 2013
Officials are still trying to find out where the adulteration with horsemeat took place
Horsemeat has been detected in frozen lasagne on sale in Germany and supermarkets have started removing the product from their shelves.
The Real supermarket chain said it had withdrawn TiP frozen lasagne - the latest tainted processed food to figure in a Europe-wide scandal.
Other German retailers including Tengelmann and Rewe are now checking their processed beef products too.
The EU is urging member states to conduct random tests for horsemeat.
All members should carry out DNA tests on processed beef for traces of horsemeat for three months from 1 March, the EU health commissioner said on Wednesday.
German authorities suspect a batch of lasagne sent from Luxembourg to a retailer in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
On Wednesday the state's Consumer Affairs Minister, Johannes Remmel, said that "after analysing the data we have learned that through a middleman in Luxembourg, a significant amount of goods has been shipped to Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia, and those goods are suspected, and I repeat only suspected, to have not been properly labelled".
The shipment is believed to have taken place between November 2012 and January 2013.
Comigel connection Mr Remmel said frozen processed foods had arrived in Germany, via Luxembourg, from Comigel - the supplier in northeastern France which sent mince containing horsemeat to several UK retailers.
The supermarket giant Tesco, frozen food firm Findus and budget chain Aldi received mince containing horsemeat from Comigel.
The French firm denied wrongdoing, saying it had ordered the meat from Spanghero, a firm in southern France, via a Comigel subsidiary in Luxembourg - Tavola.
The supply chain reportedly led back to traders in Cyprus and the Netherlands, then to abattoirs in Romania.
On Wednesday the EU Health Commissioner Tonio Borg said EU states should test not only for horsemeat but also for the presence of the veterinary medicine phenylbutazone ("bute"), thought to be potentially harmful to humans.
Mr Borg was speaking after a meeting with ministers from the UK, France and other affected countries in Brussels.
He said the programme of random tests should report after 30 days, but testing should continue for three months.
The scandal has raised questions about the complexity of the food industry's supply chains across the EU.
There are now calls for more specific labelling on processed meat products in the EU, to show country of origin, as in the case of fresh meat. But the cost of doing that may trigger opposition from food manufacturers.
Romania has denied claims that it was to blame for the mislabelling.
Germany's Consumer Protection Minister Ilse Aigner called the mislabelling situation "a mess" and said the EU must put an effective food surveillance system in place to detect fraud. Speaking on German ARD television, she stressed that it was a problem of fraudulent labelling, not public health.
Horsemeat Row: Slaughterhouse and Meat Firm Raided
Farmbox Meats near Aberystwyth was one of the premises raided
A slaughterhouse and a meat firm have been raided by police and officials probing alleged horsemeat mislabelling.
Peter Boddy Licensed Slaughterhouse, in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, and Farmbox Meats Ltd, of Llandre near Aberystwyth, have had work suspended.
Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said it was unacceptable if UK firms were defrauding the public.
Meanwhile, Waitrose withdrew its Essential British Frozen Beef Meatballs after pork was detected in two batches.
They are the latest product to be withdrawn from UK shelves.
The Food Standards Agency suspended operations at both the raided premises, detained all meat found and seized paperwork, including customer lists from the two companies.
The West Yorkshire plant was thought to have supplied horse carcasses to the Aberystwyth plant, which were then allegedly sold on as beef for kebabs and burgers.
Both West Yorkshire and Dyfed-Powys police entered the premises with the FSA.
Peter Boddy said he was co-operating with the FSA officers.
"It was not a raid - they are welcome to visit whenever they want, they just wanted to see my records which I will be showing them," he said.
He confirmed he slaughters horses at his plant and that the meat is sold in the UK.
Dafydd Raw Rees of Farmbox Meats said he had a licensed red meat cutting plant and had been in operation for three years.
"I've been cutting horse meat for three and a half weeks," he said.
"The meat comes from Ireland. A consignment came in this morning as the FSA arrived."
"There is nothing we have done here which is not totally permissible."
Mr Paterson said of the latest developments: "It's totally unacceptable if any business in the UK is defrauding the public by passing off horsemeat as beef.
"I expect the full force of the law to be brought down on anyone involved in this kind of activity."
'Integrity essential' FSA director of operations Andrew Rhodes said: "I ordered an audit of all horse-producing abattoirs in the UK after this issue first arose last month, and I was shocked to uncover what appears to be a blatant misleading of consumers.
"I have suspended both plants immediately while our investigations continue."
Andrew Rhodes of the Food Standards Agency: ''This activity is clearly not legitimate''
The Welsh minister for agriculture, Alun Davies, said: "Integrity and trust are essential in the food chain. I would be appalled if these allegations are proven.
"The Welsh government is working closely with Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and the FSA to ensure this matter is dealt with swiftly and decisively."
The latest developments came as Mr Paterson held another meeting with the FSA, supermarkets and food producers to discuss the spreading horsemeat contamination scandal.
He told MPs during a Commons debate earlier that "too much is taken on trust" when it comes to verifying meat supplies.
Labour's Mary Creagh welcomed the FSA and police action.
The raids uncovered the first suspected instance of a UK abattoir passing off horsemeat for beef, Mr Paterson said.
It came after the National Beef Association (NBA) suggested the addition of the words "United Kingdom origin" to packaging to prevent "further cheating" by suppliers on the Continent.
The scandal has spread across Europe as details of the elaborate supply chain in the meat industry emerge.
Batches Withdrawn
French consumer safety authorities said companies from Romania, Cyprus and the Netherlands, as well as its own firms, were involved.
Mr Paterson will travel to Brussels on Wednesday to discuss the scandal with counterparts in EU countries.
At Waitrose, a spokeswoman said it had had "contradictory results" from tests on the frozen beef meatballs.
She said all had tested negative for horse DNA, but one test had indicated the presence of some pork.
"We have withdrawn two batches of these products as pork is not listed as a product in the recipe."
The products are 480g packs of 16 meatballs with a best before date of the end of June 2013 and the end of August 2013.