Horse meat scandal spreads to Germany
Evidence a horse meat scandal had spread to Germany emerged for the first time on Wednesday after EU authorities realized that falsely labelled lasagna had also been delivered to shops in at least one western German state.
The Consumer Protection Ministry in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) said that a Luxembourgian distributor has been delivering products thought to contain horse meat “on a large scale across Germany and NRW.”
Deliveries had been made between November 2012 and January 2013, not only to a wide range of supermarkets but also to other food production companies. The authorities were tipped off by EU investigators.
A spokeswoman from the ministry said that checks were underway to make sure that the products in question had been removed from the shelves and if they had not already, were in the process of being taken out of circulation.
“Consumer fraud is not a trivial offence,” the spokeswoman said, adding that the government representatives would be taking part in a special sitting of the European parliament on Wednesday evening.
DPA/DAPD/The Local/jcw
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The Consumer Protection Ministry in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) said that a Luxembourgian distributor has been delivering products thought to contain horse meat “on a large scale across Germany and NRW.”
Deliveries had been made between November 2012 and January 2013, not only to a wide range of supermarkets but also to other food production companies. The authorities were tipped off by EU investigators.
A spokeswoman from the ministry said that checks were underway to make sure that the products in question had been removed from the shelves and if they had not already, were in the process of being taken out of circulation.
“Consumer fraud is not a trivial offence,” the spokeswoman said, adding that the government representatives would be taking part in a special sitting of the European parliament on Wednesday evening.
DPA/DAPD/The Local/jcw
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