By Nadia Arumugam, Contributor

By now you’ve read more than you probably care to read about Europe’s latest stomach-churning food scandal.  Yes, that would be the one about frozen burgers, lasagna and spaghetti Bolognese masquerading as all-beef products, when in reality they consist of some beef combined with varying amounts of that other red meat; horse.

But just in case you’ve a renewed appetite for this fast-evolving saga, read on as we try to unravel just where on earth all this horse meat is coming from?

It’s likely that shoppers at major UK supermarkets have been buying and consuming these equine-tinged products for up to a year ignorant of their true contents. Following recent DNA testing, grocery giant Tesco has admitted that the ground meat in the frozen spaghetti Bolognese in its “Everyday Value” range is more than 60 percent horse.

A month ago, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland discovered that frozen burgers in the same Tesco range contained approximately 29% horse meat.  Frozen patties in other major stores made by processing plants in Ireland and in the north of England– also suppliers to Tesco, were similarly contaminated. In one out of nine burgers tested, the Irish authorities found low levels of horse meat. This spate of discoveries in Ireland sparked off the comprehensive investigation that has led to fingers being pointed in all and every direction.

Officials in Ireland believe that the horse meat in the products they tested were Polish in provenance. But it doesn’t end there with the Poles.

The Tesco “spag bol” – as the Brits endearingly refer to this favorite dish, was made by Comigel, a supplier in northeastern France. Comigel produced the now infamous lasagna for Swedish frozen food brand Findus. Yes, the one found to contain 100 percent horse meat.

Findus claims to have been entirely oblivious to the horse meat ingredients that were found in its “beef” products in the UK, France and Sweden, believing itself to be as much a victim as the consumer.

Comigel supplies tens of thousands of tons of frozen meals to around 15 countries. The company risks having to cough up massive fines as a consequence of the scandal, even if it’s found that its suppliers committed the alleged fraud.

So then, where are these suppliers, and where are they getting the horsemeat from? The supply chain, it seems, reportedly snakes back to traders in Cyprus and the Netherlands, then to abattoirs in Romania. Take a moment to study Romania’s laws governing equine transport, and therein you may find the reason why Romania has been peddling excess horse meat of late.

In 2007, as part of efforts to bring Romania in step with European Union law, the country banned horse-drawn carts from main roads in cities and towns. Horse had been intrinsic to Romanian life pulling carts through the streets or working the fields. Following the ban, countless numbers of stray horses have been abandoned. Starving and with nowhere to go, they roam the streets and parks of Romania’s major cities.

Consequently, the emaciated horses are rounded up and if left unclaimed (almost all are), they are sent to slaughterhouses. Abandoned animals aside, poor Romanians are selling their horses to slaughterhouses because they can’t afford to keep them. The monthly income of subsistence farmers in the countryside is less than the costs of feeding a horse for that period. According to an Associated Press report, costs run between €100 ($135) and €150 ($200) to keep a horse every month — up to 40 percent of the average national salary.

There are 35 processing plants in Romania that are authorized to slaughter horses, and horse exports are on the increase, up 10 percent in the last year.  The Romanian government has vehemently denied any wrongdoing on the part of its slaughterhouses. Adamant that all the horse meat exported was properly labeled, the Romanian Prime Minister feels his country is being used as a scapegoat in this crisis.

The slaughterhouse which supplied Comigel with its “mystery meat” was indeed Romanian.  The Kravys abattoir, in Botosani, northeastern Romania, slaughters 3,000 to 4,000 horses annually and exports the meat to Sweden, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Poland. In a report by the BBC, the abattoir insists that its labeling and procedures are above board, with horsemeat and beef kept clearly apart.

Could the real villain then, be lurking elsewhere?

At the heart of the scandal, it’s now alleged, are two meat traders, one from Oosterhout (in southwest Netherlands) and the other, known as Jan F., the director of a Cyprus-based meat trading company called Draap Trading.

Incidentally, Draap is horse in Dutch, spelt backwards.

These men are said to be the missing link between Romanian abattoirs and French suppliers. Both men have been convicted in the past for passing off South American horse meat as halal-slaughtered Dutch beef.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest