EU policy not to blame for horse-meat scandal, says Commissioner
Europe's Health and Consumer policy chief today rejected claims that EU policy was to blame for the horse-meat scandal.
Commissioner Tonio Borg, speaking ahead of talks in Brussels, said there were EU rules in force on labelling and a Rapid Alert system to identify rogue goods and remove them from shelves across Europe if necessary.
But enforcement of the rules was up to national authorities and the current controversy was - so far at least - not a health issue but one of wrongly labelled products.
He said the Commission was first formally notified about the problem last Friday by one member state - the UK - and was now working with authorities in Ireland, the UK, France, Romania, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
There would also be a special meeting this Friday of the EU's Standing Committee on the Food Chain.
He said: "The EU food safety system is one of the safest in the world. Thanks to this system and its capacity for full traceability, national authorities are in a position to investigate this matter so as to find the source of the problem.
"The European rules on traceability have allowed member states to discover rapidly the origin and distribution chain of the fraudulent products."
Mr Borg said there were currently no signs that the horse meat in the food chain was a health risk.
He said: "If there are signs, we will take immediate action, but it would be unfair and inappropriate for all countries involved to turn this immediately into a health issue without having the evidence."
