Almost 800kg of spoiled meat from Poland was found in France, French Minister of Agriculture Didier Guillaume said on Friday.
It came after revelations that a Polish abattoir was slaughtering sick cows and selling the meat for consumption.
Footage from a Polish TV report showed sick and mistreated cows being killed in slaughterhouses.
Speaking to French media CNEWS, Guillaume said sanitary services were able to trace and recall more than 500kg of the damaged meat by Thursday afternoon.
They identified nine companies who were "duped" into buying the meat, said Guillaume in a press release .
Food control services carried out investigations in the nine companies aimed at finding the rest of the meat and recalling it in order to protect consumers, said the statement.
These companies don't sell the meat directly, said the ministry.
"We don't know whether the meat has been distributed to stores or it's still frozen, Guillaume told CNEWS .
The ministry became aware of the spoiled meat situation on Monday when the European press broke the story and a warning was sent out by the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF).
According to Poland's chief veterinarian Pawel Niemczuk, 2.7 tonnes of meat from the sick cows were exported to ten EU countries.
The countries affected were France, Sweden, Portugal, Romania, Hungary, Estonia, Finland, Spain, Lithuania and Slovakia, he said.
Poland produces about 560,000 tonnes of beef a year and exports 85% of that number.
The European Commission said on Friday that it will send an investigation team to Poland next week.
"A team of European Commission auditors are being deployed to Poland on Monday to assess the situation on the ground," a Commission spokesperson said during a press conference, adding that the problem may concern 14 EU countries in total.
↧