[ Ссылка ] European food safety officers are meeting in Brussels to discuss the mislabelling of horsemeat as beef.

The EU intends to draft plans for the large scale testing of beef products.

As many as 12 countries have so far been affected and millions of processed meat products removed from shelves.

Authorities insist that it is not an issue of public health. EU Health Commissioner Tonio Borg said:

"The first indications are that it is not a food safety issue, nothing has happened until now which is injurious to people's health. But people have been deceived, so it's more a consumer issue - and I am responsible also for consumer affairs - a question of false labelling."

The French believe that the fraud has been going on for months and could involve as much as 750 tonnes of meat.

In Paris consumers feel conned. "We have been ripped off because we pay a lot (for these frozen products)," said one. "Pasta is not expensive, and beef meat is expensive. And we pay a very high price for a product when there is horse meat inside. It is a healthy meat, it is not poison. It's far from being poison, but we are being ripped off on the price. That's it," said one shopper.

On Thursday the UK announced that eight horses slaughtered for food tested positive for bute, an equine painkiller harmful to humans and banned from the foodchain.

London has called on Europol to investigate the possibility of an international conspiracy to sell horsemeat as beef.

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