News 07.02.2014

The Netherlands recall 28.000 tons of meat

  • Transparency and food safety

One year after the international horsemeat scandal, authorities in The Netherlands have once again recalled around 28.000 tons of suspicious meat. One large abattoir was required to withdraw the entire production of the last two years from the market because it might have had horsemeat mixed up in it, according to the food control authority in Utrecht.

Was expensive beef once more mixed with cheap horsemeat? The control authorities suspect a large slaughterhouse in the province of Gelderland in the east of The Netherlands of doing just that. While this does not pose a health danger, the authorities nonetheless decreed that the entire production of the last two years can no longer be sold, due to the possibility of a swindle. However, a large portion of the meat has probably already been eaten.

Within the course of criminal investigations, horse DNA was discovered in the company’s stocks in the slaughterhouse. The company could not say where the horsemeat came from - even though the traceability of food is required throughout the EU. 

The Dutch authorities informed other EU countries about the recall through the internal European Rapid Alert System. It remained unclear, however, whether products containing horsemeat were falsely labelled and also delivered to other countries.