The European Commission is proposing more surprise inspections of food companies and tougher fines for labeling fraud in the wake of the horsemeat scandal.
Meanwhile, according to Reuters, "Unidentified criminal gangs blamed for Europe's horsemeat scandal are believed to have made huge profits by substituting millions of tons of cheap horsemeat for more expensive beef in products including meatballs and lasagne."
If approved by EU governments and lawmakers, the new rules would force member states to impose fines equal to the financial gains from proven cases of food fraud.
Member states, Reuters said, have been reluctant to agree to minimum financial sanctions mandated by Brussels, but the Commission believes the horsemeat scandal could swing the debate.
"Crime must not pay, but if the penalties are low it does pay," EU Consumer Commissioner Tonio Borg told a news conference May 6 to present the plans. Penalties for the type of labeling fraud used in the horsemeat scandal vary from state to state. A conviction in Britain may draw a jail term of up to two years, while in France the maximum penalty is a fine of EUR 187,000 ($245,000).
The proposals would also force governments for the first time to carry out a minimum number of unannounced inspections on food operators, to check that the contents of their products match what is written on the label. The scandal broke in January when horse DNA was found in frozen burgers sold in Irish and British supermarkets.
Tests conducted by European Union countries showed that France had found the most beef products containing horse DNA, while Britain had detected the most traces of a painkiller banned from the human food chain. Results from more than 7,000 tests carried out by the 27 countries in the union found horse DNA in about five percent of samples, while phenylbutazone, the banned drug used as an equine painkiller, was discovered in about 0.5% percent of samples.
Borg had said last month that the findings showed that it was "a matter of food fraud and not of food safety," adding that "Restoring the trust and confidence of European consumers and trading partners in our food chain following this fraudulent labeling scandal is now of vital importance for the European economy, given that the food sector is the largest single economic sector" in the European Union.
Just how "criminal gangs" as opposed to those originally implicated -- meat suppliers in Eastern Europe and trading companies acting as middlemen between them and further processors in Western Europe -- could have gotten control of the supply chain wasn't explained by Reuters.
