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"Horsemeat with anti-inflammatories," sums up Spanish daily El Mundo referring to the horsemeat scandal, the results of the tests, which were carried out by the health authorities of each member state at the request of the EU Commission, were published on April 16.
Two types of tests were carried out. The first was designed to identify the amount of horsemeat in meat advertised as beef. The second detected traces of phenylbutazone, an anti-inflammatory drug, which is potentially dangerous to humans and is banned from the food chain.
El Mundo explains that –
nearly 5 per cent of the beef analysed during the last month by the EU contained horse DNA and 0.51 per cent of the horse meat contained traces of phenylbutazone.
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It quotes the findings of the EU investigation, which found that the issue "is a matter of food fraud and not of food safety".
The countries posting the worst results are France and Greece, where traces of horse DNA were detected in 13 per cent and 12.5 per cent of the beef analysed, respectively. However, the United Kingdom, which found no cases of horsemeat in beef in the current tests, was responsible for the vast majority of cases of phenylbutazone being discovered in horsemeat. Of the 3,115 samples tested, only 16 were found to contain phenylbutazone, however 14 of these were found in UK samples.
To regain consumer confidence, the Commission will, in a few months, propose stricter sanctions in case of fraud on labelling or in marketing. It will also establish a passport for horses to reinforce surveillance within the EU.
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