March 6, 2013

Romania and EU to improve monitoring on European meat industry

Romania will be cooperating with EU partners to improve monitoring on the European meat industry following the horse meat scandal, said the country's foreign minister, Titus Corlatean.

The controversy originated from horse meat being exported from Romanian abattoirs to France, where it was processed into ready-made meals.

Romanian authorities say the meat was correctly labelled when it left the country and the fraud occurred further down the food supply chain.

Corlatean said that his government had moved swiftly to investigate the matter when the scandal broke.

"Fortunately we succeeded in clarifying the issue very quickly with our European partners ... the Romanian companies concerned respected European rules on sanitary checks and labelling. We will work with our European partners in dealing with this issue in the future and putting sanctions on those who are committing fraud", he added.