Ikea Withdraws Meatballs as EU Agriculture Ministers Discuss Horsemeat Scandal Response

Ikea has withdrawn a batch of Swedish meatballs from its 18 UK sites and stopped sales from the same run in 12 other European countries after Czech inspectors found equine DNA in a consignment last week.

26 Feb 2013 --- The Scandinavian furniture store said the clearance in the Swedish food market section of its stores was a precaution as it became the latest company caught up in the Europe-wide horsemeat scandal.

Swiss food giant Nestle meanwhile said it had found horse DNA in meat from the Spanish supplier, Servocar. A statement on the Swiss company's website said it was withdrawing six "La Cocinera" products and one "Buitoni" product from shops in Spain, and that it had halted all deliveries from the meat supplier, Servocar. Nestle said testing continued across its products, a week after it announced that it was withdrawing two types of beef pasta meals from supermarkets in Italy and Spain which had been supplied by a company in Germany, H J Schypke. The discoveries came as EU agriculture ministers meet for talks expected to focus on the growing horsemeat scandal.

Following the EU Agriculture Council where the European-wide horsemeat fraud was discussed, UK Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said: “Earlier today I had a meeting with Commissioner Borg to discuss a comprehensive response to the European wide fraud involving horsemeat.”

“This was followed by the Agriculture Council meeting which was the first time that all European ministers have been able to gather round the table to discuss this cross border criminal problem. We need coordinated action by every member state across Europe to rebuild consumer confidence in the products provided by food businesses, and to ensure perpetrators are prosecuted.”

“As we have seen from recent announcements by Ikea and Nestle, this is an issue right across the European supply network. Following my visit to The Hague ten days ago I have had a further update from Europol. As a result of this I have encouraged all European countries to share any intelligence to help coordinate criminal investigations across member states.”

“The Commission has responded to our call for random testing of food products. This will initially take place for one month. I have also asked the Commission for more risk based testing of food during production and random testing for finished products.

“Finally, the Commission has agreed to my call to speed up the publication of their paper into options for country of origin labelling for processed meat used in food. This will help all member states form their own position on what any regulations would look like.”

Meanwhile the Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Simon Coveney has provided a further update on the ongoing investigation into the mislabelling of meat products and announced new measures to step up the detection of food fraud.

The investigation led by the Department’s Special Investigation Unit (SIU) continues in conjunction with the Garda [police] National Bureau of Criminal Investigation. This involves forensic examination of electronic data and records associated with consignments of beef products. It also involves detailed inspections of certain food business operators including traders, transporters, processers and exporters. The SIU is also liaising with counterparts in other Member States and Europol in relation to this pan European investigation.

In this context it has been discovered that B&F Meats, a small scale plant approved to debone beef and horsemeat, was despatching some horsemeat to a single customer in the Czech Republic via a UK based trader using a label in the Czech language which, when translated, refers to beef. The Department has suspended all operations at the plant with immediate effect. Officers of the SIU have, this afternoon entered the plant to carry out a full investigation. The Minister said “I am seriously concerned about this development and the Gardai have been fully apprised of this development and are working closely with my Department. The issue here is one of mislabelling and that will be the focus of the investigation”.

As part of the EU-wide coordinated control plan, 50 additional food samples will be checked for horse DNA during March in Ireland. These include products marketed or labelled as containing beef as a major ingredient such as minced meat, meat products and meat preparations. The Minister said that “he has agreed this EU-wide programme to investigate food fraud in order to restore consumer confidence and to establish the extent of the problem across the EU. The Commission will grant financial support to Member States to carry out the plan at a rate of 75% of the costs. The controls are to run for one month initially and may be extended for a further two months”. The results of these tests will be published.

In addition to the EU programme, officials from the Department together with the FSAI have met with representatives from the meat processing, retailing and catering sectors and agreed a protocol for DNA testing of beef products to check for adulteration with horse meat. The following categories of food are being tested – pre-packaged beef products on sale to the final consumer or to mass caterers, beef products offered for sale without pre-packaging to consumers or to mass caterers and meat ingredients used in processed beef products. The results will be made known to the public.

In addition to the EU-wide control programme for residues of Bute, the Department is introducing a positive release programme for horses destined for the food chain. The Minister said “Only horse meat testing negative for residues of phenylbutazone (“Bute”) will be allowed on the market.” This programme will run for an initial period of one month and the results, once published, will be assessed to inform future policy.

The Minister has already set in motion the establishment of a centralised equine database. For the purposes of establishing this database, the Department has requested the Passport Issuing Organisations to provide details of equine animals registered and passports issued by them since 1 January 1980 to date and the exit status of the animals. The intention is that this database will be used at abattoirs to verify the authenticity of the passport for the equine presented and to record its date of slaughter.

The FSAI is coordinating an enhanced inspection programme with the HSE and local authorities of cold stores and wholesalers to authenticate providence and accuracy of labelling of beef raw ingredients used in the manufacture of processed meat products.

The Minister said that this problem, first uncovered in Ireland, has spread across the EU and for this reason he had already convened a meeting of other Ministers and the Commission last week in Brussels which led to the establishment of an EU wide testing programme. Acting in his role as Chairman of the Council, he has arranged to hold a special debate on this matter under the Irish Presidency at next Monday’s Council of Agriculture and Fisheries meeting.