London (CNN) --
A frozen food producer caught up in a scandal over horsemeat found in beef
products in the United Kingdom, Sweden and France said Saturday it will sue the
Romanian producer it blames for the problem.
The French arm of Swedish frozen food firm Findus said it
would file a legal complaint Monday against the unnamed Romanian business.
Findus said it had been told that its products were being
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."
Meanwhile, an emergency meeting was held in London
Saturday, as ministers, food inspectors and retailers grappled with a scandal
that appears to be spreading across Europe.
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.
UK food businesses have been ordered 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.
It comes less than a month after horsemeat was found in
hamburgers sold in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Officials in Ireland have
pointed to Polish meat ingredients as being the source of horsemeat found in
burgers there.
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.
The revelations have thrown the meat industry into crisis
and revolted many meat eaters in the United Kingdom, where horsemeat is
generally considered taboo, although it is commonly eaten in neighboring
France, as well as countries including China, Russia, Kazakhstan and Italy.
Findus said Thursday it had withdrawn its lasagna --
labeled with the British spelling, "lasagne" -- from UK stores Monday
as a precaution after its French supplier, Comigel, raised concerns about the
type of meat used.
Meanwhile, Findus France has temporarily withdrawn three
ready-prepared dishes -- lasagna bolognese, shepherd's pie and moussaka --
because of the discovery of horsemeat in purported 100% beef products, the firm
said. The company added, however, that the three products could still be eaten
without health risk.
Responding to questions as to how long it had known about
the horsemeat issue, Findus said it had only been alerted by Comigel in a
letter dated 2 February.
That letter had made Findus "aware of a possible
August 2012 date" for the contamination, the company said.
British retailer Aldi said it had also withdrawn two of
its products, a beef lasagna and spaghetti bolognese, after supplier Comigel
"flagged concerns that the products do not conform to specification."
While horsemeat is not itself a food safety hazard, its
unauthorized presence -- in quantities up to 100% -- in foods purported to be
made with beef has raised serious concerns.
Comigel has not yet responded to CNN requests for
comment.
Chief among food inspectors' concerns is that the illicit
horsemeat could contain the veterinary drug phenylbutazone, or
"bute," commonly used to treat horses.
Meat from animals treated with phenylbutazone is not
allowed to enter the food chain as it may pose a risk to human health.
Findus has been ordered to test the lasagna withdrawn
from shelves in the United Kingdom for the drug's presence.
Aldi said in a statement that tests on random samples of
its affected products, labeled Today's Special Frozen Beef Lasagne and Today's
Special Frozen Spaghetti Bolognese, "demonstrated that the withdrawn
products contained between 30% and 100% horse meat.
"This is completely unacceptable and like other
affected companies, we feel angry and let down by our supplier. If the label
says beef, our customers expect it to be beef."
Samples of the affected Findus lasagna also contained
between 60 and 100% horsemeat, according to UK and Irish food safety
inspectors.
In January, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland found that 10 out of 27
hamburger products it analyzed in a study contained horse DNA, while 23 of them
-- or 85% -- tested
positive for pig DNA.
In nine out of the 10 burger samples, the horse DNA was
found at very low levels, the inspectors said, but in one sample from Tesco,
Britain's largest retailer, the horse meat accounted for about 29% of the
burger.
Tesco apologized to customers after the revelation and
promised action to make sure it never happened again.
The discovery of pig DNA in beef products is of
particular concern to Jews and Muslims, whose dietary laws proscribe the
consumption of pig products. Jewish dietary laws also ban the eating of
horsemeat.
The Justice Ministry confirmed last week that a number of
meat pies and similar items supplied to prisons in England and Wales were
labeled and served as halal -- prepared in compliance with Islamic dietary law
-- but contained traces of pork DNA, the Food Standards Agency said.
Horsemeat is not commonly eaten in the United States, but
the country does export it to Canada and Mexico. Congress passed a bill in
November 2011 that lifted a 5-year-old ban on the slaughter of horses for meat
in the United States.
Culled from CNN
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