The scandal keeps growing, DNA tests have revealed that beef tainted with horsemeat has made it into supermarkets in 13 European Union nations. Stores, schools, and hospitals are scrambling to remove suspect meat.
Europol, the European Union's police agency, is leading a continent-wide fraud investigation. So far, three men are under arrest in England and Wales, having been accused of disguising cheap horsemeat as frozen beef.
The arrests came as French authorities said meat wholesaler Spanghero relabeled and sold horsemeat from Romanian suppliers. The company denied that. Supermarkets in Germany, Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Austria and elsewhere are recalling suspect products.
Some food safety experts are blaming supermarkets for pushing down prices and squeezing wholesalers. Others think lax inspections are to blame. As for the supermarkets, they say they have been tricked too, and promise tougher inspections of their own going forward.
The scandal started in Ireland and the United Kingdom in January, but has since spread all around the EU. DNA checks on beef have found that some products, including hamburgers, contained as much as 30% horsemeat. The list of tainted products has since widened to include frozen lasagna, tortellini, and bolognese sauce.
Owen Paterson, the UK's Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. plans to meet food retailers and trade bodies to establish what is being done to restore consumer confidence in the wake of the scandal. Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons are among those meeting Paterson. Downing Street said it was "the responsibility of the retailers and the meat industry" to rebuild trust.
Meanwhile, some 24% of 2,257 UK adults surveyed by Consumer Intelligence said they would buy less processed meat. And 21% said they had already started buying less meat in general because of the horsemeat scandal, while 62% said they were more likely to buy their meat from independent shops. Findus, which was
embarrassed by findings that its frozen beef lasagna was 60-100% horsemeat, has taken a lot of heat.
Comigel, the French meat processor that sold that lasagna and other tainted products, had to suspend production, and is being sued by German chain Tengelman. Comigel blamed Spanghero, which denied mislabeling the meat. So did a Dutch trading company, Draap, which bought the meat in the first place from Romania and
sold it to Spanghero and other processors. "Draap" is "horse" spelled backwards in Dutch.
