Police raid Yorkshire abattoir over horsemeat kebab fears
POLICE yesterday raided an abattoir in West Yorkshire and a meat supplier in Aberystwyth as the scandal over the mislabelling of meat products continued to spread.
Officials from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) closed down the two sites following allegations that horse carcasses from the Yorkshire site were sold on to the Welsh company for use in kebabs and burgers.
Meanwhile supermarket chain Waitrose was forced to withdraw its own-brand British frozen beef meatballs after traces of pork were found in some batches.
Environment secretary Owen Paterson last night said allegations that unlabelled horsemeat was being produced by UK business was “absolutely shocking”.
“It’s totally unacceptable if any business in the UK is defrauding the public by passing off horsemeat as beef. I expect the full force of the law to be brought down on anyone involved in this kind of activity,” he added.
Paterson will today travel to Brussels and meet with fellow European ministers to discuss their response to the scandal.
The FSA has ordered all businesses involved in the sale of processed beef products to conduct tests for horse meat, with the first results due to be published this Friday.
Shadow environment secretary Mary Creagh yesterday accused the coalition government of undermining the UK’s food testing programme by reducing the number of FSA officials responsible for labelling since 2010.