Slaughterhouse raided as horsemeat scandal escalates

A YORKSHIRE abattoir has been raided by officers from the Food Standards Agency as the authority investigates allegations that it supplied horse caracasses to a meat business in Wales.

Officers from West Yorkshire and Dyfed-Powys police accompanied the FSA as they seized meat and paperwork from Peter Boddy Licensed Slaughterhouse in Todmorden, West Yorkshire and Farmbox Meats in Llandre, Aberystwyth.

The FSA and police are looking at why meat products, purporting to be beef for kebabs and burgers, were sold when they contained horsemeat.

The FSA has suspended operations at both sites while it investigates the first suspected instance of a UK abattoir passing off horsemeat as beef.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said he expects tough action to be taken against any business that has broken the law.

He said: “This is absolutely shocking. It’s totally unacceptable if any business in the UK is defrauding the public by passing off horsemeat as beef.

“I expect the full force of the law to be brought down on anyone involved in this kind of activity.”

Both food businesses deny any wrongdoing.

However, in an interview with Sky News, FSA director of operations Andrew Rhodes said: “We acted on excellent evidence, which includes the traceability of where products go from one location to another.

“I’m very confident that the information we have used and what we have obtained is evidence that something has happened which should not have been.”

Results of tests into the extent of contamination of beef products are expected on Friday as the scandal continues to escalate.

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