French firm in horsemeat scandal denies fraud

Paris, Feb 15 (AP) A French wholesaler at the heart of a growing uproar over horsemeat mislabeled as beef and hidden in frozen meals denied any fraud today, saying he has proof that his company is innocent of any wrongdoing. Barthelemy Aguerre, the chief of Spanghero, told RTL radio that his company in southern France did receive a lot of horsemeat along with beef, "and we didn't touch" it. He did not provide details or specify whether he reported the horsemeat delivery, saying only, "I will prove my innocence." French Consumer Affairs Minister Benoit Hamon said yesterday that it appeared fraudulent meat sales over several months reached across 13 countries and 28 companies. Hamon fingered Spanghero as a major culprit, but said there was plenty of blame to go around. Europol, the European Union police agency, is coordinating a continent-wide fraud investigation amid allegations of an international criminal conspiracy to substitute horse for more expensive beef. Police in the UK yesterday announced the arrests of three men on suspicion of fraud at two meat plants inspected earlier this week by the country's Food Standards Agency. The two separate developments were part of an escalating scare that has raised questions about food controls in the European Union and highlighted how little consumers know about the complex trading operations that get food from producers to wholesalers to processers to stores and onto their dinner table. Hamon said Spanghero was one company in a chain that started with two Romanian slaughterhouses, which say they clearly labeled their meat as horse. The meat was then bought by a Cyprus-registered trader and sent to a warehouse in the Netherlands. Spanghero bought the meat from the trader, then resold it to the French frozen food processor Comigel. The resulting food was marketed under the Sweden-based Findus brand as lasagna and other products as containing ground beef. Hamon said Spanghero was well aware that the meat was mislabeled when it sold it to Comigel. But Aguerre, the Spanghero executive, said if there was a customs code indicating horsemeat, his company knew nothing about it.(AP) AJR BOD 02151636 NNNN