'Britain's horsemeat scandal to worsen'
February 10, 2013  19:50

Britain's raging meat scandal is set to worsen as the environment ministry today warned that more British ready meals containing horsemeat are expected to be found over the next few weeks.        

 

Environment secretary Owen Paterson issued the warning after emergency meeting with supermarket bosses and Food Standards Agency to tackle the scandal of horse in beef products.        

 

Food businesses have been told to send initial test results on all their products to the FSA by Friday. "The retailers have committed to conduct more tests and in the interests of public confidence I've asked them to publish them on a quarterly basis," Paterson said, adding that there was no evidence yet that the scandal had become a public safety issue.        

 

Paterson said the scandal was either due to "gross incompetence" or an international criminal "conspiracy". Sources close to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the FSA said it appeared that the contamination of beefburgers, lasagne and other products was the result of fraud that had an "international dimension".

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