The Czech Republic became the latest country to detect horse meat in food products labelled as beef in a widening European food labelling scandal, officials said today.

The discovery was made by the state-run Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority. DNA tests detected horse meat in lasagna Bolognese made by frozen food processor Tavola S A Comigel and sold at a Tesco store in the western city of Plzen, the agency said today. Tesco was ordered to recall it, and tests continue.

In Romania, 100 kilograms of horse meat mislabelled as beef was found in Bucharest, the agriculture ministry said today.

Ministry spokesman Achim Irimescu told national news agency Agerpres that the meat which was detected yesterday had been correctly labelled at source. There were no further details about where the meat was being sold.

Romania was at the origin of the horse meat scandal, with tons of horse meat from Romanian abattoirs exported to France, where it was processed into ready-made meals. Romanian authorities said that the meat had been correctly labelled as horse and the fraud had occurred further down the food supply chain.

Horse meat has turned up across Europe in frozen supermarket meals such as burgers and lasagna, in beef pasta sauce, on restaurant menus, in school lunches and in hospital meals.

Related Topics