Editorial: Can Europe Contain Horse Meat Crisis?

The crisis over the mislabelling of beef ready meals that contain horse meat escalated this week as more major processing companies with drew products as DNA tests found they were contaminated.

Following on from the withdrawal of Findus frozen lasagne from the market in the UK; Nestlé withdrew similar products under the Buitoni brand in France, Spain and Italy; Birds Eye withdrew some of its frozen ready meals in the UK and the Scandinavian store IKEA has withdrawn its meatball products.

Across Europe, the European Commission has ordered the testing of more than 2,250 products to verify whether they might contain horse meat.

Tests are also being carried out to see whether the products are also contaminated with phenylbutazone known as "bute", which is used as an anti-inflammatory for horses and other animals, but which can be harmful to humans.

In Ireland one company has been closed by the food safety authorities because it was found that it has been exporting horsemeat to the Czech Republic under beef labels.

This week, agriculture ministers from across Europe were meeting in Brussels for the meeting of the Council of Ministers at which a programme of action is expected.

At the opening of the SIA agricultural exhibition in Paris this week, French president François Hollande called for European-wide labelling regulations for ready meals.

Away from the horse meat crisis, in Germany this week, total meat production was reported to have fallen for the first time in 15 years to just over 8 million tonnes.

The figure was 1.9 per cent (159,000 tonnes) lower than in 2011, according to figures from the German statistics agency, Destatis.

In 1997, the volume was 4.9 million tonnes and this increased by almost 67 per cent to 2011, when the output was 8.2 million tonnes.

Most of the reduction in 2012 was attributed to the decrease in pig meat output. Beef production continued its decline from the previous year, while the previous rapid increase in poultry meat volumes came to a standstill, only slightly higher than 2011.

In the US, during the 2013 Outlook Conference, USDA chief economist Joseph Glaube forecast that meat exports will rise by 1.3 per cent with increased beef and veal and poultry exports offsetting a small decline in pork exports.

Dairy product exports are forecast down 3.3 per, while exports of horticultural products are up almost 12 per cent over FY 2012 levels.