Commission Memo (MEMO/13/104), 15 February 2013

MEAT - Statement by Health & Consumer Policy, Tonio Borg, following the French authorities' announcement on their horsemeat investigation

I welcome the announcement by the French authorities that they have identified and suspended a company which had knowingly sold horse meat as beef. This is indeed a major step forward in an investigation which has been mobilizing the EU's and Member States' competent food and consumer authorities for a week now. Full scope of the investigation remains to be established but these findings illustrate that traceability of food in the EU works. The Commission had been in close contact with the Member States which are primarily responsible for ensuring the proper enforcement of EU rules.

Today, at an extraordinary Standing Committee of the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH), organized by my services, Member States' experts will examine the coordinated plan I put forward on Wednesday to EU ministers in which I called for a reinforcement of DNA and Phenylbutazone tests throughout the EU.

Consumers must be assured that everything will be done at EU level to restore, as soon as possible, their confidence in the products on our markets.