World's biggest food firms embroiled in horsemeat scandal

Paris, Feb 19 (AFP) The world's biggest food company, Swiss-based Nestle, and the world's top beef producer, JBS of Brazil, were Tuesday the latest in a long list of firms to be embroiled in Europe's spiralling horsemeat scandal. Their involvement in the fast-moving drama marked another milestone in a scandal that has seen supermarket chains across Europe pull from their shelves millions of "beef" products that are thought to contain horsemeat. Nestle announced it was removing two ready-to-eat meals -- beef ravioli and beef tortellini -- from supermarket shelves in Italy and Spain after tests found traces of horse DNA in the products. That brings to around a dozen the number of countries where tests have confirmed that horsemeat has been fraudulently passed off as beef. Nestle said in a statement yesterday that the horse DNA was found in two products made with beef supplied by German firm HJ Schypke. It said there was no food safety issue but the tainted products breached the one per cent threshold the British Food Safety Agency uses to indicate likely adulteration or gross negligence. JBS of Brazil, which used HJ Schypke as a subcontractor, meanwhile said its Belgian branch would stop buying European meat "until confidence is restored in the European beef supply chain." It sought to distance itself from the scandal, saying in a statement on its website: "Schypke, a traditional German manufacturer of processed meat products, is not in any way part of the JBS Group." It added: "No case of co-mingling of species has been identified in products produced in or at JBS factories." On Monday, German discount chain Lidl pulled ready-made meals from the shelves of its Finnish, Danish, Swedish and Belgian stores as it also confirmed the presence of horsemeat. The French firm that sparked the Europe-wide food alert, by allegedly passing off 750 tonnes of horsemeat as beef, was allowed to resume production of minced meat, sausages and ready-to-eat meals. But Spanghero, whose horsemeat found its way into 4.5 million "beef" products sold across Europe, will no longer be allowed to stock frozen meat, France's Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll said yesterday. (AFP) ASY 02191914 NNNN