Findus may sue French suppliers over horse meat contamination as it's revealed one company used by frozen food specialist was at centre of E. Coli scare



Findus faces allegations its beef lasagnes contained 100% horse meat

Has since emerged supplier Spanghero was at centre of E.coli scandal

Spanghero supplies meat to Comigel, which made Findus lasagnes



Findus says it may sue the French firm for breach of contract



Environment secretary Owen Paterson said scandal is a 'conspiracy'



Today, he held emergency meeting with FSA and retailers

French government promises punishment for those responsible



Findus may take legal action against its suppliers following the horse meat scandal, the company said tonight.

The UK firm said it is taking legal advice amid revelations that its beef lasagnes in fact contained 100 per cent horse meat.

The move comes as it emerged the French firm which supplied the horse meat was at the centre of a major E.coli scare just 20 months ago.

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Under investigation: The Spanghero depot in Castelnaudary, in south western France

Inspectors feared that some 12 tonnes of beef mince from the Spanghero plant in Castelnaudary, in the south west of the country, contained the potentially lethal bacteria.



The firm supplied meat for French frozen food giant Comigel which made the Findus beef lasagnes.

Findus said tonight: 'Findus is taking legal advice about the grounds for pursuing a case against its suppliers, regarding what they believe is their suppliers' failure to meet contractual obligations about product integrity.

'The early results from Findus UK's internal investigation strongly suggests that the horse meat contamination in Beef Lasagne was not accidental.'

The authorities in France have now begun an 'urgent' investigation of their own into both Comigel and Spanghero.



The French government has promised punishment for anyone found to be selling horse meat in beef products.

Consumer Affairs Minister Benoit Hamon said an investigation had found that the horse meat originated in Romania, although there were links with French, Dutch and Cypriot firms and a factory in Luxembourg.



Scandal: Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said ultimate responsibility for ensuring there is no horse meat in products lies with British retailers

He said an EU-wide alert had been sent out and that it was not yet clear whether there had been an intentional fraud or the meat had been sold as beef by accident.

'I can assure you that, whether it's a question of negligence or direct responsibility, there will be sanctions,' Hamon said on iTele television.

Findus France director general Matthieu Lambeaux said in a statement the company would file a legal complaint on Monday.

'We thought we had certified French beef in our products. But in reality, we were supplied with Romanian horsemeat. We have been deceived,' Lambeaux said.



'It's a straight fraud. If a product says it's beef and you're actually buying horse, that is a fraud.'

Owen Paterson

UK Environment Secretary Owen Paterson held an urgent meeting with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and leading retailers today to discuss the escalating scandal.

He warned of a possible 'international criminal conspiracy'

'If there's a criminal act we will work with the authorities wherever they are to ensure the appropriate measures are taken,' he added.

'It's a straight fraud. If a product says it's beef and you're actually buying horse, that is a fraud.

'It is in the interests of everyone to get this resolved as rapidly as possible.'

Bosses from leading supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons attended the meeting at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in London.

Mr Paterson said retailers hold the 'ultimate responsibility' for making sure that horse meat is not in their products.

'Ultimate responsibility for the integrity of what is sold on their label has to lie with the retailer', Mr Paterson said.

Recall: Tesco shelves in Colchester, Essex, were empty after yet more processed beef products, including Findus lasagne, were revealed to be contaminated with horse meat

Leaving gaps: The affected Findus products were quickly pulled off supermarket shelves Familiar scenes: This is the latest in a series of recalls of beef products tainted with horse Mr Paterson said that during this morning's talks the supermarkets agreed to work with the FSA to report their test results on a quarterly basis. Scotland Yard said officers had met the FSA, although there is currently no official police investigation.

A Ministry of Agriculture source in Paris confirmed that Spanghero had to withdraw the 12 tonnes of mince in June 2011 because of suspected contamination by Escherichia coli, which causes potentially fatal food poisoning.

As with the current scare, the contamination was suspected of affecting a wide range of popular meatball and steak ready meals in the 'House Spanghero' range.

These included dishes in aluminum trays with names like 'Steak Country' and 'Bien Vu' ('Nice View') - all of which were sold in major supermarkets such as Lidl. Spanghero, which was founded in 1970 by Claude and Laurent Spanghero, two former France international rugby players, today insisted that it had been given a clean bill of health following the e-Coli scare. 'Angry and let down': Aldi has confirmed that tests on frozen beef lasagne and frozen spaghetti bolognese found they contained between 30 per cent and 100 per cent horse meat 'Completely unacceptable': David Cameron (right) said it was 'a shocking story' and that the industry would have to work hard to restore confidence, as Environment secretary Own Paterson (left) held a horsemeat summit with the Food Standards Agency and heads of food retailers

'The beef was destroyed as a precaution but it did not threaten anybody's health,' said a source at the plant in Castelnaudary. The source said that Spanghero had increasingly come to rely on imported meat because of the closure of nearby French abattoirs.

However, he said there had been no attempt to pretend its 'beef' was from France - as Comigel alleges.

Highlighting the confusion in the global food chain, Comigel president Erick Lehagre said he was 'certain' Spanghero was supplying beef from French cattle. After the horse meat scandal broke, however, he established that Spanghero was sourcing the meat in Romania. 'We realised a week ago that there was a problem, after being alerted by customers in Britain,' said Mr Lehagre. 'We have identified the supplier concerned, Spanghero. They've told us the meat came from a Romanian producer who used abattoirs which slaughtered both cattle and horses and processed beef and horse meat.' France's Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll said it was 'unacceptable' for horse meat to be passed of as beef. Pride: The company insists 'you can trust us' as it boasts on its website of using 'the best ingredients and a generous pinch of imagination' in its products 'You have to respect a simple thing,' said Mr Le Foll. 'What is written on a label must conform to what is in the product.' France's fraud office, the DGCCRF, has launched an investigation, and inspectors are visiting both the Comigel and Spanghero plants, said a spokesman.

Findus France, which is also supplied by Comigel, has withdrawn lasagna bolognese, shepherd's pie and moussaka ready meals because they are made of horse meat. Police met with the food standards authority over the horse meat scandal yesterday as fears grew that school dinners and hospital meals had been contaminated. The Food Standards Agency contacted Scotland Yard following an announcement by Findus that it was withdrawing almost 400,000 beef lasagnes after some were found to contain 100 per cent horse meat. Findus admitted that it had allowed unsuspecting consumers to continue to buy and eat the ready meals for more than a week after it first began investigating concerns over their supplier. Last night Aldi admitted that two of its ready meal ranges have been found to contain up to 100 per cent horse meat. The company said it felt ‘angry and let down’ by its French supplier Comigel, which also produced the contaminated Findus lasagnes. It also emerged last night that the meat supplied to Comigel came from Romania.

Fresh revelations: Findus confirmed that it has been selling packs of its frozen lasagne that contained 100 per cent horse meat

Tests on Today’s Special frozen beef lasagne and Today’s Special frozen spaghetti bolognese found they contained between 30 and 100 per cent horse meat, Aldi said.

The meals were withdrawn earlier this week as a precautionary measure and the firm has urged consumers to return them for a refund.

An Aldi spokesman said: ‘This is completely unacceptable. If the label says beef, our customers expect it to be beef. Suppliers are absolutely clear that they are required to meet our stringent specifications and that we do not tolerate any failure to do so. We will no longer take any product from Comigel.’

As the Government stood accused of being slow to react to the crisis, Prime Minister David Cameron described the latest revelations as ‘completely unacceptable’.

‘It’s important to say there’s no reason to believe any frozen food currently on sale is unsafe or a danger to health,’ he said. ‘It’s not about food safety – it’s about proper food labelling and about confidence in retailers.

‘The Secretary of State for Agriculture is returning to London. It’s important we get this right. It’s important to say there’s no reason to believe any frozen food currently on sale is unsafe or a danger to health.’

Factory: Findus' food processing facility in Longbenton, a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne

Criticism: The firm is under fire for its handling of the horse meat revelations which emerged this week

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson attempted to quell health fears over the lasagnes by saying he would be prepared to let his family eat one. There are concerns the horse meat contains a drug used by vets which is a health risk to humans.

The Findus withdrawals come after ten million beefburgers were taken off the shelves last month because horse meat was found in products sold by Tesco.

Mr Paterson returned to London from his Shropshire constituency last night ahead of a crisis summit with retailers and food processors today.

A police spokesman said: 'The enforcement of food standards legislation is primarily a matter for the FSA, alongside local authorities. We will, of course, consider any evidence the FSA are able to provide.'



FSA chief executive Catherine Brown said yesterday: ‘The two cases of gross contamination that we see here indicates that it is highly likely there has been criminal and fraudulent activity involved.

Letter: Labour MP Tom Watson claims to have obtained a warning letter sent by Findus to its wholesale customers

‘We are demanding that food businesses conduct authenticity tests on all beef products, such as beefburgers, meatballs and lasagne, and provide the results to the FSA.’



An FSA spokesman added: ‘The evidence we have about the two cases, points to either gross negligence or deliberate contamination in the food chain. This is why we have already involved the police, both here and in Europe.

‘We believe that these two particular cases – the frozen burgers from Tesco and the lasagne from Findus – are linked to suppliers in Ireland and France respectively.

‘We are working closely with the authorities in these countries to get to the root of the problem.’



The agency said there was no reason to suspect there is a health issue with frozen food in general, but urged anyone who had the food in their freezer to return them.

Agriculture and Food Minister David Heath he was ‘staggered’ by the scandal and pledged: ‘If there is any risk whatsoever, people will be told.



‘I cannot honestly say at the moment that the content of every burger is as it should be because we haven’t got the evidence to do so.’

Both Number 10 and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs were unable to say what checks, if any, were being carried out by the Government on beef products being served in schools and hospitals.

A Department of Health spokesman said: 'It is not a Government issue – every hospital sources its own food. It is all locally sourced.’

There is also concern that the horse meat has not been tested for the presence of veterinary drug phenylbutazone. Also known as ‘bute’, it has been found to cause a serious side effects in about one person in 30,000.

Findus became concerned about that the products had been contaminated on January 29 but did not raise the alarm for a week.

After Comigel was unable to provide evidence that all the meat used was beef, Findus withdrew the lasagnes on Monday.

It subsequently tested 18 of its beef lasagne products, made by the company, and found that 11 contained in the range of 60 per cent to 100 cent horse meat, the FSA said.

Manufacture: A worker shows off a beef lasagne ready meal made at the Findus factory in Tyneside in 2008

But Findus only announced its decision to withdraw the products on Thursday, after receiving the results, meaning thousands of consumers had bought and eaten contaminated meals in the mean time.

Findus did not respond to claims by Labour MP Tom Watson that it sent a letter to retailers on Monday warning that a French-based supplier had told it there may be problems with raw materials delivered since August 1 last year.

When tracked down by the Daily Mail in France yesterday, the president of Comigel refused to accept he had done anything wrong.

Erick Lehagre, 53, said: ‘It is a complicated case. I am not prepared to discuss how the horse meat got into food products.’



Security teams were last night guarding the Comigel headquarters in Metz, eastern France and the company’s subsidiary factory Tavola, some 60 miles away in Capellen, Luxembourg, where the frozen meals are made.

Last night Professor Alan Reilly, chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland – the organisation which originally discovered the problem of horse meat in beef products last month – said the Findus meat had been transported from Romania to France and then to Luxembourg.

Labour has called for the Serious and Organised Crime Agency to be called in to investigate the scandal. A Findus spokesman said: ‘We understand those concerns; we are sorry we have let people down.’

VIDEO Daybreak presenters alarmed after FS worker hints at Bute contamination





Ministers under pressure to ban 'suspect' processed beef imports until 'we have proper testing 'procedures in place' Ministers were under pressure to ban all imports of processed beef from Ireland, France and Poland last night - amid growing fears horsemeat may have been served up in schools and hospitals. Senior Tory Anne McIntosh called on ministers to seek urgent talks with Brussels about imposing an immediate ban on imports from the three countries thought to be the source of horsemeat found in burgers and lasagne sold in Britain.

Ban imports: Senior Tory Anne McIntosh called on the Government to seek urgent talks on an immediate bar on imported processed beef

Miss McIntosh, chairman of the Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee, said she would not eat processed beef at the moment because of doubts about its origins.

She added: ‘If we were exporting contaminated beef to France they would demand that the European Commission impose an immediate ban and we should be doing the same until we can be absolutely certain that they have put proper testing procedures in place.

‘This is not a health scare at the moment but it easily could be. The Food Standards Agency has been slow off the mark and we need to get on top of it quickly now.’



The call came amid growing charges of Government complacency over the issue.

Three weeks into the crisis, Downing Street was unable to say whether burgers and processed meat products being served in schools and hospitals may contain horsemeat.



A spokesman for the Prime Minister said the issue was ‘distasteful’ but not a threat to health. The spokesman said the contamination resulted from ‘acts of criminality’ which were now being investigated by the police.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson was ordered onto the airwaves last night to provide public reassurance after spending the day in his Shropshire constituency.

Mr Paterson was returning to London last night ahead of a crisis summit with retailers and food processors today.

David Cameron last night described the growing scandal as a ‘very shocking story - it’s completely unacceptable’.

Would not eat: Miss McIntosh said she would not eat processed beef because of doubts about its origins following the horsemeat scandal as supermarkets withdrew ready meals from their shelves

He ducked questions about whether he would eat processed beef himself, but insisted it was safe.

‘This isn’t really about food safety,’ he said. ‘It’s about effective food labelling, it’s about proper retail practice, and people will be very angry to find out they have been eating horse when they thought they were eating beef.

‘It’s important we get this right. It’s important to say there’s no reason to believe any frozen food currently on sale is unsafe or a danger to health. But it’s not about food safety.’



But both Number 10 and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs were unable to say what checks, if any, were being carried out by the government on beef products being served to schoolchildren and hospital patients.

The Department of Health suggested it had no responsibility for the issue, with a spokesman saying: It is not a Government issue - every hospital sources its own food, it would be a case of speaking to every hospital. It is all locally sourced.’

Farming minister David Heath also declined to offer reassurances, saying: ‘You are asking me to give an assurance on behalf of a great number of different purchasing agencies, lots of different people who make their own decisions about what is appropriate.’ A Number 10 spokesman said the scandal was now a matter for the Food Standards Agency, which was set up in the wake of the BSE crisis.

But the FSA itself came under fire from critics, who said it had been much too slow to get to grips with the issue.

Health concern: The GMB union said all hospitals, schools and meals-on-wheels services should verify that horsemeat had not been served to vulnerable people

Shadow Environment Secretary Mary Creagh said: ‘We have this announcement from the FSA late on Thursday night that there was a much more rigorous testing regime being applied to supermarkets. Why was that regime not started two or three weeks ago when this scandal broke? ‘It’s government’s job to set the regulatory standards and the regulatory framework and to conduct the tests to make sure that that framework is working. That framework has broken down. I think it’s broken down catastrophically. It’s not good enough to just rely on this supermarket audits.

Miss Creagh, who said she would not eat processed beef at present, also criticised ministers, saying it was not good enough for ministers to ‘sit at their desks and pretend this isn’t happening’.

Mr Paterson’s whereabouts were a mystery for much of the day. Number 10 initially said he was in his department in London getting to grips with the crisis. But, hours later, Mr Cameron announced the environment secretary would be ‘returning to London’ after apparently spending the day in his constituency. Mr Heath was also out of the office in his Somerset constituency.

The GMB union said all hospitals, schools and meals-on-wheels services should verify that horse meat had not been served to vulnerable people.

Brian Strutton, the union’s national secretary for public services, said: ‘With rising public alarm over the prevalent use of horse meat in retail food products and possible health issues, the Government must require all public services that feed vulnerable members of society to verify that they have not used horse meat.’

