Romania sells over 6,000 tonnes of equine meat to EU countries in 2012

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Romania has sold 6,085 tonnes of horse, mule and donkey meat to European states in 2012, and the control showed that all the companies have respected the legislation, the National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority announced Monday.

"In 2012, Romania produced 6,300 tonnes of equine meat (horses, donkeys, mules). About 96.6 percent of this amount was sent to the beneficiaries in Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Belgium, and the rest was used on the Romanian market," the agency said in a release.

There are 35 equine meat producing houses in Romania, authorized to participate in intra-community trade. Two of them were mentioned in the horsemeat scandal, one in Brasov and the other in Botosani.

The agency said there was no evidence that horsemeat was mis-labeled in Romania. This follows checks made in all slaughterhouses in Romania to see if operators met legal requirements.

The agency said French authorities were asked for further information to identify the sold meat lots, but that nothing had come through via the rapid alert system of the European Commission or from veterinary services in France.

The Food Standards Agency of Britain announced Thursday that they found lasagna which should have been made with beef actually contained horsemeat, in some cases in its entirety.

The Swedish food group Findus accused the meat supplier, the French company Spanghero, for having delivered them horsemeat from Romania labeled as beef.

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta said Monday that the fraud over horsemeat sold as beef was not committed in his country and Romania should not be treated as "the usual suspect."

"Our interest is that those who made a fraud by changing the name and origin of the products should be caught and punished," Ponta said. Endi

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