Britain frozen food sales slump after scare: study
‘Horsemeat’ reaches Hungary
LONDON, Feb 26, (Agencies): British sales of frozen beef burgers collapsed by 43 percent and ready meals by 13 percent in the wake of the horsemeat scandal, data showed Tuesday from retail consultancy Kantar Worldpanel.
However, many Britons have changed the products they buy rather than where they shop, according to Kantar.
“The issue has so far only affected the performance of individual markets rather than where consumers are choosing to shop,” said Kantar Worldpanel director Edward Garner.
“For the four weeks ending 17 February, frozen burger sales were down by 43 percent and frozen ready meals declined by 13 percent, clearly demonstrating a change in shopping habits.”
Equine DNA was first discovered on Jan 16 in beefburgers in Britain and Ireland, countries where horsemeat consumption is generally taboo, sparking a Europe-wide health scare which is still ongoing.
The horsemeat scandal has left governments scrambling to figure out how and where the mislabelling happened in the sprawling chain of production spanning a maze of abattoirs and meat suppliers across Europe.
In France, pasta maker Panzani, a subsidiary of Spain’s Ebro Foods, said Tuesday it had found traces of horsemeat in ravioli made by a French supplier and that the products had been withdrawn in France.
A statement said that the supplier, William Saurin, was “deceived by one of its suppliers”. It said Spanghero, the firm at the heart of the scandal gripping Europe, was in no way involved.
It said none of its other products “showed any traces of horsemeat”. Panzani also said it bought all of its meat from western European suppliers.
Panzani did not indicate how many ravioli meals were withdrawn. All of them were for sale in France.
Latest
Panzani is the latest company after Sweden’s Ikea to be entangled in the ballooning scandal over horsemeat in food products that erupted in January when horse DNA was detected in beefburgers in Britain and Ireland.
The affected firms include Nestle, which last week was forced to yank products off the shelves in Spanish and Italian supermarkets after detecting horsemeat in deliveries from a German supplier.
Meanwhile, the Europewide horsemeat scandal reached Hungary Tuesday after an announcement by the country’s food safety authorities that undeclared horsemeat had been discovered in packets of “beef” lasagne.
“Beef lasagne containing horsemeat has been discovered in Hungary,” said Gyorgy Pleva, director of Hungary’s National Food Chain Security Office in a statement to state newswire MTI late Monday.
“It was inevitable that Hungary would be unable to avoid the fallout from the horsemeat scandal,” he said.
The case is the first discovery of undeclared horsemeat in Hungary since the scandal erupted in January when horse DNA was detected in beefburgers in Britain and Ireland.
Since then, supermarkets across the continent have pulled prepared meals from their shelves, with effects felt as far away as Hong Kong where an imported brand of lasagne has been withdrawn from stores.
The lasagne was imported into Hungary by the Danish company Nowaco and produced by the Luxemburgbased firm Tavola, a subsidiary of Comigel, the French firm which supplied frozen lasagne found to contain up to 100-percent horsemeat to British supermarkets.
Authorities in Slovakia say they have discovered horsemeat in a food product labeled as beef.
Horsemeat has turned up across Europe in frozen supermarket meals such as burgers and lasagna, in beef pasta sauce, on restaurant menus, in school lunches and in hospital meals.
Slovakia’s Public Health Authority says horsemeat has been detected in Lasagna Bolognese that originated in Luxembourg.
Pavlina Komarova, spokeswoman for the Slovak State Veterinary and Food Administration said Tuesday it is the same lasagna made by frozen food processor Tavola S. A. Comigel in which horse meat was detected last week in neighboring Czech Republic.
Komarova says it is the first such case in Slovakia.
The European Commission said Monday it has an open mind when it comes to place of origin labels on prepared foods as several member states pushed for the measure to help combat the horsemeat for beef scandal.
Review
EU Health Commissioner Tonio Borg nonetheless said an EU report into the labelling issue — which was in the works before the crisis broke — would be brought forward three months so member states could review it earlier.
As more cases were reported across Europe, Borg said a growing number of member states were “in favour of introducing this legislation but ... I have an open mind.”
Passing off horsemeat as beef was simple criminal fraud, he insisted, saying that place of origin labels would not have prevented that happening.
Simon Coveney, who as Ireland’s agriculture minister chaired Monday’s talks in Brussels, said testing was the way forward as only that could ensure the integrity of the food chain in the future.
Country of origin labelling was positive but the key issue was to use “DNA testing to confirm for consumers that they are eating what they think they are eating,” Coveney said. Earlier this month, EU ministers agreed at an emergency meeting to launch tests for horse DNA in meat products, initially for one month and possibly for three.
In addition, the test programme also looks for the presence of phenylbutazone, an anti-inflammatory treatment for horses which is harmful to humans.
French Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll said separately that France, Germany, Britain, Austria and Portugal had all asked for the Commission to bring forward the labelling report.
Rather than the end of the year, it should be made available by the middle of the year, Le Foll said, adding: “I argued that the best would be by June and at the very latest, by September.”
Several countries, including Germany, were in favour of putting labels of origin on prepared foods, he said.
The producer of Ikea meatballs withdrawn from shelves in 24 countries amid fears they contained horse said Tuesday it had found none of this meat in its product.