Foodlaw-Reading Dr David Jukes, The University of Reading, UK
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Food Law News - EU - 2014

Commission News Item, 14 February 2014

MEAT - Horsemeat: Commission sets out recommendation for launching second round of EU-wide DNA testing plan

A Commission Recommendation on a coordinated control plan to carry out a series of DNA tests in EU Member States was endorsed yesterday by experts meeting at the Standing Committee on the Food Chain. This is the second time the Commission is coordinating such a control plan to find out if horsemeat is still being fraudulently added to products labelled as beef. The first round of testing that was carried out in 2013 revealed that approximately 4, 6 % of products sampled contained undeclared horsemeat.

Although there have not been any public health implications in connection with this food fraud, there has been a very clear reaction from consumers following this scandal that controls need to be stepped up. It will be up to each EU Member State to set up their timetable. Testing will be carried out during the spring and the Commission will collect and publish the results of these EU-wide tests by end July 2014.