Romania Finds Horsemeat in Fast Food Outlets

Romania's Food Safety Authority, ANSVSA,  on Thursday announced that horsemeat labelled as beef had been distributed to seven fast-food units in Bucharest.

“The meat was sold in small 3-4kg batches and none of it remains in the fast food units, which suggests it may already have been sold to the public,” ANSVSA said, without naming the fast food units.

The agency noted that the meat was sourced to a cold storage in Alba county and investigations are ongoing into who labelled it as beef, and where.

Authorities have recently intensified tests of meat in the country in the wake of the widening European scandal.

"We have taken all the necessary measures and are expanding controls in all relevant enterprises," the Deputy Agriculture Minister, Achim Irimescu, said on Wednesday.

Romania was named as one of the sources of wrongly packaged meat, sold off as beef products in France and Britain, by the food giant, Findus.

Later investigations revealed that Romanian abattoirs concerned had openly sold the meat as horsemeat, however, and the false labelling had occurred further down the supply chain.

The meat industry association, Asociatia Romana a Carnii, ARC, has announced that it will seek compensation for being wrongly involved in the scandal, if it turns out that Romanian meat sales have dropped as a result.

European Union governments have approved an EU-wide program of DNA tests on beef products to assess the scale of the scandal. EU farm ministers are to discuss the issue at a February 25 meeting.