Health & Medicine
Horse Lasagna: Romanian Producer Faces Charges for use of Products Found with Horsemeat in United Kingdom, Sweden and France
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Feb 09, 2013 10:20 AM EST
Another horsemeat scandal is blazing the trails. A frozen food producer caught with horsemeat in its beef products in the United Kingdom, Sweden and France said Saturday it will sue the Romanian producer they are reportedly blaming for the problem.
The French arm of Swedish frozen food firm Findus said it would be filing a legal complaint Monday against the unnamed business, claiming that they had been told their products were made with French beef, not Romanian horsemeat.
"We were deceived," said a Findus France statement. "There are two victims in this affair: Findus and the consumer."
Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said it was "completely unacceptable" that consumers were being sold food that contained horse in place of beef.
The evidence so far suggests "either criminal activity or gross negligence," he said.
Paterson warned that "more bad news" could come.
With the news, UK food businesses have been order to test all processed beef products for "authenticity" and report back to the authorities by Friday.
Retailers in the United Kingdom, France and Sweden pulled millions of lasagna and other processed beef products off the shelves as the alarm was raised over the Findus lasagnas.
The shocking information comes just less than a month after horsemeat was discovered in hamburgers sold in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The UK Food Standards Agency said the evidence "points to either gross negligence or deliberate contamination in the food chain.
"This is why we have already involved the police, both here and in Europe."
"This is completely unacceptable -- this isn't about food safety but about proper food labeling and confidence in retailers," Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday, quoted on his official Twitter feed.
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First Posted: Feb 09, 2013 10:20 AM EST
Another horsemeat scandal is blazing the trails. A frozen food producer caught with horsemeat in its beef products in the United Kingdom, Sweden and France said Saturday it will sue the Romanian producer they are reportedly blaming for the problem.
The French arm of Swedish frozen food firm Findus said it would be filing a legal complaint Monday against the unnamed business, claiming that they had been told their products were made with French beef, not Romanian horsemeat.
"We were deceived," said a Findus France statement. "There are two victims in this affair: Findus and the consumer."
Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said it was "completely unacceptable" that consumers were being sold food that contained horse in place of beef.
The evidence so far suggests "either criminal activity or gross negligence," he said.
Paterson warned that "more bad news" could come.
With the news, UK food businesses have been order to test all processed beef products for "authenticity" and report back to the authorities by Friday.
Retailers in the United Kingdom, France and Sweden pulled millions of lasagna and other processed beef products off the shelves as the alarm was raised over the Findus lasagnas.
The shocking information comes just less than a month after horsemeat was discovered in hamburgers sold in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The UK Food Standards Agency said the evidence "points to either gross negligence or deliberate contamination in the food chain.
"This is why we have already involved the police, both here and in Europe."
"This is completely unacceptable -- this isn't about food safety but about proper food labeling and confidence in retailers," Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday, quoted on his official Twitter feed.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone