French firm suspected as culprit in horsemeat scandal

An investigation has identified a French meat-processing firm as a likely culprit in the horsemeat scandal that has enraged consumers across Europe and implicated traders and abattoirs from Cyprus to Romania.

Separately, British police investigating alleged mislabeling of beef products arrested three people on Thursday at facilities in Wales and Yorkshire which had handled horsemeat and were raided by police earlier, British media reported.

No further details on the British arrests were immediately available.

The French probe into how horsemeat found its way into ready meals sold across Europe found that the Spanghero firm labeled meat as beef when it knew what it was processing may have been horse, the government said on Thursday.

Spanghero, based in the town of Castelnaudary near Toulouse in southwest France, could have its operating license revoked and will face legal action if the suspicions are confirmed, France's consumer affairs and farm ministers told a news conference.

“It would seem that the first agent in this chain to label the meat 'beef' was indeed Spanghero,” Consumer Affairs Minister Benoit Hamon said. “This was either a very big mistake or a deception for profit.”

There was no indication that a Romanian firm supplying meat to Spanghero had mislabeled what was in fact horsemeat, he said, arguing that Spanghero could not have failed to notice the meat it was importing was much cheaper than beef.

(Reuters)