Brussels, 15/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - Everyone is rushing to their battle-stations in the scandal over horsemeat sold as beef. EU27 experts agreed, on Friday 15 February, to the battery of DNA testing on processed food that is supposed to contain beef, and to tests for the detection of phenylbutazone (“bute”) - the anti-inflammatory administered to race horses but banned for human consumption due to its toxicity (see EUROPE 10786 and 10785). In so doing, the Standing Committee of the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH) approved the recommendation made on Wednesday evening by the European Commission after the ministerial meeting convened as a matter of urgency to restore consumer confidence in products on the market - confidence that has recently been shattered.
This go-ahead was given just as the French company Spanghero was publicly placed in the dock and when the crisis of confidence, linked to this labelling fraud, risks being accompanied by a health crisis with the discovery, by the British authorities (FSA), of traces of phenylbutazone in horse carcasses exported to France. A separate scandal; but one which still concerns horsemeat, and only adds to the confusion.
The plan for coordinated controls approved by the member state experts will begin immediately for an initial 30-day period that could be prolonged for two months. The results of controls will be published on 15 April. DNA testing for the animal species in order to identify whether horsemeat has been used in processed dishes supposed to contain beef and sold as beef will mainly be practised at retail level. Some 2,250 samples will be taken across Europe ranging from 10 to 150 samples per member state depending on the size of the country and the importance of the horsemeat market (in Europe, horsemeat is consumed in just four countries - Belgium, France, Italy and the Netherlands). Detection of possible residues of phenylbutazone in horsemeat will be carried out by way of one sample for every 50 tonnes of horsemeat, and each member state will have to carry out at least five tests. These two kinds of testing will be developed by a reference laboratory.
Tonio Borg, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, was delighted that the member states had rapidly agreed to initiate this collective response to what has been revealed as an “economic scam”, as Benoit Hamon, the deputy French minister for consumers, put it. On Thursday evening, he said that the French company Spanghero knowingly used horsemeat for processed food, and that it would be prosecuted. The fraud motivated by the attraction of financial gain has been going on for several months and affects 750 tonnes of meat. On Friday, a national team of veterinarians were sent to the premises of the company in order to carry out further in-depth investigations. The announcement by the French minister was welcomed by Commissioner Borg as decisive progress in the inquiry.
Borg said: “I welcome the announcement by the French authorities that they have identified and suspended a company which had knowingly sold horsemeat as beef. This is indeed a major step forward in an investigation which has been mobilising the EU's and member states' competent food and consumer authorities for a week now. Full scope of the investigation remains to be established but these findings illustrate that traceability of food in the EU works. The Commission had been in close contact with the member states which are primarily responsible for ensuring the proper enforcement of EU rules”.
The European Commission continues to affirm that, at this stage, there is no health problem, as no test carried out by member states on samples of processed dishes supposed to contain beef have revealed the presence of phenylbutazone. Frédéric Vincent, Commissioner Borg's spokesman, explained that, with regard to what has concerned them over the past three weeks, the substance has not been detected. It is a different matter for the three British carcasses, however, which were not intended for the human food chain, he said. When an animal goes to slaughter, it must have a health passport to be checked by the veterinary authorities, he said. By “carcass”, he said, one means the skeleton and the meat.
MEPs tackle the scandal. The subject of the horsemeat scandal is an item on the agenda of the committee for the environment, public health and food safety at the European Parliament, scheduled for Monday 18 February. José Bové (Greens/France), who is the deputy chairman of the Parliament's rural development and agriculture committee, said the scandal over horsemeat sold as beef shows once again that certain food processing sectors are willing to do anything, even fraudulent practice, to compress costs, bring prices down and maximise their profits.
In the EU, the horsemeat market is a niche market, with an annual consumption of 110,000 tonnes on average. (AN/transl.jl)