Romania Declared its Position re European Horsemeat Scandal

A meeting of European officials and food experts is due to take place this week in Brussels to analyze the case of the horsemeat sold in imported beef products. Over the last days several European countries including Romania have carried out investigations into this matter. Meanwhile all incriminated products have been withdrawn from European markets.

The scandal broke out in Britain and Sweden where pre-prepared frozen foods labeled as beef were found to contain horsemeat. The French supplier that had delivered the meat said the horsemeat actually originated in Romania.

Romanian authorities have inspected the two abattoirs allegedly signaled to be the source of the meat, but have found no irregularities.

Agriculture Minister Daniel Constantin: “There is no evidence at present in support of any mislabeled products in Romania, in any of our meat processing facilities. I would particularly like the highlight the fact that no mincemeat has ever been exported from Romania

In turn Prime Minister Victor Ponta said Romania was blameless in the horsemeat scandal in the UK.

Victor Ponta: “I don’t believe Romania should accept to be incriminated as the usual suspect, because our food industry is extremely transparent and measure up to all EU standards. It is very clear that the French supplier had no direct contract with any Romanian company. It is important for the entire Europe to reveal the source of the fraud and who bears responsibility for it. Our main interest was to verify if anything similar had ever happened in Romania, and based on our findings so far, there is no attested transgression of EU regulations and standards”.

Adapted from Radio Romania International