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مشاهدة النسخة كاملة : EU tackles horse-meat row


aammar
13-02-2013, 03:00 AM
EU agriculture ministers are to discuss the horsemeat scandal that has reportedly affected up to 16 countries.

Irish Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney will chair the Brussels talks, which will seek ways to restore consumer confidence in meat products.

This comes after the discovery that meat sold in Europe labelled as beef contained horsemeat.

On Tuesday, a slaughterhouse and a meat firm were raided by police in the UK probing alleged horsemeat mislabelling.

UK Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said it was unacceptable if British firms were defrauding the public.

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Meat scandal

In mid-January, Irish food inspectors announced they had found horsemeat in some burgers stocked by UK supermarket chains
Subsequently, up to 100% horsemeat found in several ranges of prepared frozen food in Britain, France and Sweden
Up to 16 countries involved
Concerns that drug used to treat horses, and which is harmful to humans, could be in food chain
Meat traced from France through Cyprus and The Netherlands to Romanian abattoirs
Investigation suggests contamination was not accidental but the work of a criminal conspiracy
The scandal has raised questions about the complexity of the food industry's supply chains across the 27-member EU bloc, with a number of supermarket chains withdrawing frozen beef meals.
Meanwhile, Romania has denied claims that it was the source of the mislabelling of horsemeat. Bucharest says horsemeat that leaves the country has not been minced, and is labelled as horse.

Tighter restrictions
The ministers from the UK, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania and Sweden are expected to take part in the talks in Brussels, along with European Commission officials.

The meeting is an opportunity to exchange ideas on where the problem might have originated and how to stop it in the future, the BBC's Christian Fraser reports.

Tighter restrictions for the labelling of processed food are now in the pipeline, our correspondent adds.

"We are looking at whether (such labelling) is possible... but nothing is fixed yet," Mr Borg's spokesman said on Tuesday.

There are growing concerns that that a drug used to treat horses - and which is harmful to humans - could be in the food chain.

But EU officials say public health is not at stake, and the problem is instead one of mislabelling.

They say it is up to national regulators to take action.
BBC News - Horsemeat scandal: EU ministers to hold crisis talks (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21437317)