Germany to investigate horsemeat scandal

German authorities have announced plans to introduce a national action plan to investigate the widening horse meat scandal.

This comes just a day after a local canned goods producer confirmed its beef goulash contains traces of horse meat.

German Consumer Affairs Minister Ilse Aigner says plans are now in place to hold a meeting with all state consumer affairs ministers in Germany.

"The focus will be to carry out a Europe-wide screening to find out whether this is just the tip of the iceberg. Beyond that, we want to extend the measures to other types of meat to find out whether only horsemeat was affected."

Revelations that beef has been replaced by horse meat has become a huge scandal across Europe.

Many products have been removed from sale.

Police investigations are also underway across Europe.