Horsemeat, in seven restaurants and fast-foods of Bucharest

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Ady Salve Blaj company, under investigation.

Part of the horsemeat labeled as beef which was found yesterday in a warehouse of Ilfov County reached seven restaurants and fast-foods in Bucharest, adevarul.ro reports. The meat seems to have been delivered by a company headquartered in Blaj, Alba County. The president of the National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA), Mihai Turcanu said that, according to the distribution list of the Ilfov warehouse, quantities of meat from the respective batch were sent to food processing facilities.These units were controlled by ANSVSA inspectors who found that they bought small amounts of meat from the Ilfov-based warehouse, respectively 3-4 kilograms each, which they already prepared and put on sale, Turcanu explained. Various shops in Ilfov were found by inspectors selling frozen meat labeled as beef, which was actually horse. Turcanu added that the Authority is conducting microbiological analyses of the meat. The Ilfov Police and Alba Police were notified and are trying to find the origin of the meat, which authorities suspect was illegally supplied to the storage facility. The meat found in Ilfov was seized, the company selling it will be sanctioned and its activity will be suspended until the problems are solved.According to Mihai Turcanu, 35 abattoirs are authorised to slaughter horses in Romania and the problems discovered recently could appear only if the horses were killed in non-authorised units.On the other hand, Gheorghe Feneser, the prefect of Alba County informed that the company which supplied the horsemeat is located in Blaj, is named Ady Salve, has 8 employees and its activity object is the processing of meat. In 2011, it had a profit nearing RON 100,000 for a turnover slightly above RON 2 M.The Alba prefect added that the representatives of the local company that sold horsemeat labeled as beef risk prison sentences up to 7 years if proven guilty. However, the case has nothing to do with the company owned by the father of the ANSVSA president, he assured.The prefect added that the company suspect of supplying mislabeled horsemeat is verified by several institutions, including the Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Department Alba.Asked if the horsemeat has anything to do with the Botosani-based firm owned by the father of the ANSVSA president, the Alba prefect answered that, according to the information he received, there is no connection, Mediafax reports.

Bulgaria confirms horsemeat in lasagna dishes

Bulgaria on Thursday became the latest European country to confirm the presence of horsemeat in products labeled as beef that were taken off shelves last week, globalpost.com reports.  “Results from the two tests taken from the already banned products were positive for horsemeat, indicating 80 percent and 50 percent content,” Bulgaria’s food safety agency said. The tests by a German laboratory were ordered last week when 86 kg of “beef” lasagna dishes were withdrawn from a supermarket chain that was not identified. The agency proceeded to destroy the dishes on Thursday, adding that it also sent for DNA testing five new samples from other products.Some 30 samples from Bulgarian meat products were also tested in Bulgarian laboratories over the past 10 days, and were all negative, it added. Horsemeat labeled as beef has already been detected in products across Europe in recent days in a major scandal that has even reached Hong Kong.