Horsemeat crisis shows need for sanctions: EU
Poland finds horse DNA
BRUSSELS, Feb 28, (Agencies): Brussels plans stiffer sanctions against food fraud following the discovery of mislabelled ready-made meals across Europe containing horsemeat instead of beef, the EU’s health commissioner said Thursday.
“The scandal confirms the importance of proper controls and dissuasive sanctions,” Health Commissioner Tonio Borg told the European Parliament’s health and food safety committee.
Borg said that “to reinforce the element of dissuasiveness,” an upcoming proposal by the EU executive to review agrifood legislation will include a call on member states to agree financial penalities for intentional violations of food chain rules “at a level which offsets the financial gain sought through the violation.”
Even in the case of false labelling, the penalty must serve “as an effective deterrent that shows that crime does not pay” and be at least equal to the economic gain made by those involved, he said.
Borg said the Commission also favoured tighter controls along the food chain “in case of risk”.
New proposals for stiffer sanctions and tighter controls will be presented in the spring, said Borg’s spokesman. But they will have to be agreed by both the parliament and the 27 member states, meaning they are unlikely to be ready before the end of the mandate of the present Commission in May 2014.
Found
Meanwhile, Polish authorities found evidence of horse DNA in beef stored at three storage facilities after several countries pointed to Poland as one of the sources of tainted meat that has shaken the European food industry.
Poland’s General Veterinary Inspectorate said in a statement late on Wednesday it found three tainted samples from 121 tested, with 80 more to be examined.
On Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Polish arm of furniture giant IKEA said the company stopped buying meatballs from its Polish supplier on concerns they could contain horsemeat.
“Our Polish supplier informed us that there are some concerns,” said Karolina Horoszczak, adding that the supplier had asked IKEA to stop using its products in its restaurants.
“These are preemptive actions and we are still waiting for test results,” she added.
Officials in Ireland, Britain, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic have reported that products such as burgers and lasagne containing horsemeat originated from facilities in Poland.
Polish officials had previously said they found no signs of horse meat at all abattoirs tested.
A European scandal erupted last month when tests in Ireland revealed some beef products contained horse meat, triggering recalls of readymade meals in several countries and damaging confidence in Europe’s vast and complex food industry.
Poland exports 330,000 tonnes of beef products annually, or more than three-quarters of its total production, mainly to other European Union members.
In another report, after withdrawing meatballs from stores across Europe, home furnishings company Ikea said its own tests confirmed “a few indications of horse meat” and that it would also remove wiener sausages made by the same supplier.
Meanwhile, Poland acknowledged for the first time that it is a source of horse meat that has fraudulently ended up in processed meat products sold as beef — an admission that came as the country said it found traces of horse DNA in samples from three meat processors.
Ikea said it would withdraw the sausages from stores in France, Britain, Spain, Ireland and Portugal. Other stores were getting sausages from other suppliers, company spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson said.
No horse meat had been found in the wieners, but they were removed anyway because they came from the same supplier as the meatballs, Magnusson said.
The supplier, Gunnar Dafgard AB, didn’t return calls seeking comment.
The move comes two days after Czech food inspectors found traces of horse meat in Ikea’s Swedish-made meatballs, prompting the company to pull them from store shelves in 21 European countries and in Hong Kong, Thailand and the Dominican Republic.
Stores in other countries, including the US and Canada, were not affected because they received meatballs from a different supplier.
Ikea said results from its own tests confirmed some meatballs didn’t just contain beef, despite what their labeling said.
“Based on some hundred test results that we have received so far, there are a few indications of horse meat,” Magnusson said. “Together with the Swedish supplier in question we have decided to withdraw from sales also the wiener sausages ... from that supplier.”