Give horsemeat-tainted food to poor - German minister Published duration 23 February 2013

media caption Dirk Niebel said it would be irresponsible to throw away palatable and safe food

Germany's development minister has suggested that horsemeat mislabelled as beef should be distributed to the poor.

Dirk Niebel said he supported the proposal by a member of the governing CDU party, and concluded: "We can't just throw away good food."

The opposition dismissed the idea, but a priest said it should be considered.

Meanwhile, traces of horse DNA have been found in six tonnes of minced beef and 2,400 packs of lasagne Bolognese seized from a company in Italy.

The products were packaged by Italian group Primia, based near Bologna.

The health ministry said Primia had used meat from another company in Brescia and originally supplied by two other companies, also based there.

It is the first positive test in Italy since the scandal erupted last month.

Earlier on Saturday, the Italian authorities said they had found no traces of horsemeat in beef products seized this week from the Swiss food giant Nestle.

On Monday, Nestle announced that it was withdrawing two types of beef pasta meals from supermarkets in Italy and Spain after tests revealed traces of horse DNA.

A problem was identified with a supplier in Germany, H J Schypke, it said.

Two other German companies, Dreistem-Konserven and Vossko, have been accused of manufacturing products containing horsemeat. Both have also blamed their own suppliers.

On Friday, Germany's consumer affairs ministry announced that it had now found traces of horse DNA in 67 of 830 food products tested.

'Absurd'

The BBC's Steve Evans in Berlin says others have echoed the sentiment, including Mr Niebel, who said there were 800 million people in the world who were hungry.

"Even in Germany, unfortunately there are people for whom it is financially tight, even for food. I think that we can't just throw away good food here in Germany."

The opposition has dismissed the idea as "absurd" and an insult to poor people, our correspondent adds, but Prelate Bernhard Felmberg, the senior representative of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), has backed the proposal.

"We as a Church find the throw-away mentality in our society concerning. How and whether to distribute the products in question would have to be examined," the priest said.

"But to throw away food that could be consumed without risk is equally bad as false labelling and cannot be a solution."

Meanwhile in French President Francois Hollande visited the annual Farm Show in Paris, in an apparent bid to restore confidence in the French food industry.

The country has been at the heart of the scandal, after it emerged that tonnes of horsemeat from Romanian abattoirs had been processed into ready-made meals in France.

image caption President Hollande showed his support for French agriculture

Mr Hollande said he would push for continent-wide labelling rules on the meat in prepared foods.

"There is a need for traceability, that is what I want from talks on a European level," Mr Hollande said.

Earlier, three major French food companies agreed to use only French beef in their products.

Findus - one of the firms at the heart of the scandal - and retailers Carrefour and Intermarche announced at the Farm Show that they would start using labels saying "100% French" from March.