The horse meat scandal: horse sold as beef
Europe, 2013
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
On January 15, 2013, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland announced that it had found horse DNA in frozen burgers sold as beef by major supermarkets in Ireland and the United Kingdom, including Tesco, Iceland, Lidl and Aldi. In one Tesco product, the amount of horse DNA was estimated at about 29% relative to the beef. The news led governments in several countries to test the minced meat used by the food industry.
On February 7, the British food agency revealed that frozen "beef" lasagnes of the Findus brand, made by Comigel at the Tavola factory in Luxembourg, contained between 60% and 100% horse meat in 11 of 18 samples. The investigation traced the meat back along a chain of intermediaries: slaughterhouses in Romania, which sold it correctly labelled as horse, a Dutch trader, a company registered in Cyprus and the processor Spanghero, in Castelnaudary, southern France, which resold it as beef. The scandal reached more than a dozen European countries, millions of ready meals were recalled and the European Union created a joint testing plan.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_horse_meat_scandal
- quechoisir.org/actualite-fraude-a-la-viande-de-cheval-des-peines-de-prison-ferme-a-l-issue-du-proces-spanghero-n65959/
- leclubdesjuristes.com/archives-cdj/scandale-des-lasagnes-au-cheval-condamnation-par-la-justice-de-deux-anciens-dirigeants-de-la-societe-spanghero-2432/
- abcnews4.com/news/nation-world/france-holds-trial-over-horse-meat-found-in-frozen-lasagna
- foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2013/01/18/Horse-meat-in-burgers-We-ve-found-the-source
In the game
Green Stripe
Lauragais, southern France, Friday, February 8, 7 am. Salaisons Delsol, a processor that sells frozen minced meat to ready-meal factories across half of Europe.
In April 2019, the Paris criminal court sentenced the former director of Spanghero to two years in prison, 18 months of them suspended, for fraud over the species and origin of more than 500 tonnes of horse meat sold as beef to Tavola in 2012 and early 2013. The Dutch trader received two years in prison and was banned for life from working with meat, and the former factory manager got one year suspended. The charge of fraud by an organised gang was not accepted by the judges.
