Arrests Made in UK Horsemeat Scandal, EU Investigation Intensifies

Dyfed-Powys Police in Wales have made arrests at both meat plants inspected by the UK Food Standards Agency on Tuesday. At Farmbox Meats near Aberystywth, Dyfed-Powys Police have arrested two men aged 64 years and 42 years, and in a simultaneous operation police arrested a man aged 63 at the Peter Boddy Slaughterhouse in Todmorden, West Yorkshire.

15 Feb 2013 --- Approvals for both plants were suspended yesterday by the FSA, so neither firm was operational.

Dyfed-Powys Police can confirm the three people have been arrested on suspicion of offences under the Fraud Act and they are being detained at Aberystwyth Police Station where they will be interviewed jointly by police and FSA staff in what has this afternoon become a joint operation.

The news comes as UK Environment Secretary Owen Paterson met Europol and Eurojust in the Hague to discuss meat fraud. After the meeting, he said: “I’m very pleased that Europol is formally involved in the investigation on meat fraud, as first instigated by the UK Food Standards Agency.”

“This morning I met Europol and Eurojust, who offered their full support to the national law enforcement agencies involved in meat fraud across Europe.”

“This is an incredibly important step. It’s increasingly clear that this case reaches right across Europe. It’s clear that Europol is the right organisation to coordinate efforts to uncover all wrongdoing and bring criminals to justice, wherever there may be.”

“I will be speaking to my European colleagues again to urge their enforcement agencies to follow our lead and share all information they have with Europol.”

On Thursday the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) confirmed that it has been notified by Rangeland Foods that it is withdrawing some batches of burger products which contained beef supplied from Poland that it produced for the catering and wholesale sectors. This withdrawal is as a result of some batches of its burger product that have tested positive in the UK for between 5% and 30% horse meat. These products were sold to the catering and wholesale sectors and have been distributed to Ireland, the UK, Spain, France, Germany and The Netherlands.

Rangeland Foods has confirmed to the FSAI that it has notified its customers that would have received these implicated products and a withdrawal is taking place. As is the protocol in food withdrawals, if these suppliers have subsequently traded these products onwards to other food businesses, they are compelled to notify them to ensure that a swift withdrawal is undertaken across the market.

The FSAI is issuing a food alert for Ireland and will notify the European Commission via the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed about the exported product. The FSAI will continue to work with Rangeland Foods to ensure that all implicated product is removed from the market.

It comes as the UK FSA’s most recent tests on the presence of phenylbutazone (bute) in horses slaughtered in the UK checked 206 horse carcasses between 30 January 2013 and 7 February 2013. Of these, eight tested positive for the drug.

Of these eight:
Six were sent to France and may have entered the food chain. They were slaughtered by LJ Potter Partners at Stillman’s (Somerset) Ltd, Taunton.

The remaining two did not leave the slaughterhouse in the UK (High Peak Meat Exports Ltd, Nantwich) and have now been disposed of in accordance with EU rules.

The FSA is gathering information on the six carcasses sent to France and will work with the French authorities to trace them.

The samples for bute testing were taken on the day of slaughter and the confirmed results have been received by the FSA. Since 30 January, the FSA has been testing 100% of horse carcasses for bute.

From this week, a ‘positive release’ system for horses slaughtered in the UK has been in operation. This will mean that all horse carcasses have to test negative for bute before they can enter the food chain. The Agency has now developed a testing regime which enables results to come through in approximately 48 hours from when the test is carried out.

The results of this are consistent with extra surveillance carried out by the FSA in 2012, when a selection of horses slaughtered were tested for bute. 6% of those tested contained bute.

Bute is not allowed to enter the food chain; however, even if people have eaten products which contain contaminated horse meat, the risk of damage to health is very low. The Chief Medical Officer’s statement on bute can be found via the link to the right.

The FSA introduced 100% testing of horse carcasses on 30 January. Prior to this, samples were taken from a selection of horses slaughtered.

The latest results announced are the last set to have been carried out under the previous testing system which takes a couple of weeks for results to be determined. This is why carcasses were released from slaughterhouses before test results were known.

Now that a 48-hour testing system has been developed, no carcasses which test positive for bute will be released from slaughterhouses.