An investigation was conducted Friday in a factory in the southern Netherlands that allegedly mixed horse meat and beef before selling it labeled as "pure beef", reported CBS. According to the evidence gathered, "the company used horse carcasses from the Netherlands and Ireland in meat and mixed the horsemeat with pieces of beef, "said the prosecutor in a statement. The company then sold these mixtures as "pure beef".
"It is not yet clear whether there is a link with the recent discoveries of horse meat in burgers and frozen meals Irish English," said the prosecutor. According to the Dutch media, the horsemeat comes from the factory Willy Selten, located in the town of Oss. On its website, the company describes itself as "a company operating internationally, specializing in cutting and boning of beef."
The search was conducted in the form of a large-scale survey carried out by the Prosecutor's Office, in collaboration with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the Netherlands. The company that owns the factory is also being investigated on fraud and money laundering allegations, and administrative documents were seized during the search, according to the same source.
Horsemeat was also found in shepherd's pies at school meals that were supposed to be made with 100% beef. The school meals containing the horsemeat were delivered to 47 schools in Lancashire (northwest England) and hamburgers with horse meat were supplied to hospitals in Northern Ireland. The European Union is responding to this large-scale scandal and has yet to approve a plan of attack.
A dish of "cottage pie" or shepherd's pie, distributed in schools Lancashire County tested positive for the horse DNA, said the head of the local council schools in the county of Lancashire. "Relatively few schools in Lancashire offer this dish, but our priority is to provide absolute assurance that our meals contain what is written on the label. The fact that this dish did not comply with this rule has led us without hesitation, to remove it from our menus, " the organization said.
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