France tops EU DNA tests for horsemeat in beef

By Charlie Dunmore

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - France found more cases of illegal horsemeat in beef products than any other European Union country, results of official DNA tests ordered in the wake of the scandal showed, with more than 1 in every 8 samples testing positive.

Announcing the results on Tuesday, the European Commission said that for the EU as a whole, just less than 5 percent of all beef products tested had come back positive for horse DNA.

But the figures showed that of 353 tests carried out in France, 47 tested positive for horse DNA, giving a rate of more than 13 percent.

"In terms of image it's not good. It risks delaying our attempt to regain consumer confidence to get out of the crisis, because it is not over yet," Jean-Rene Buisson, chairman of the French food industry group ANIA, told Reuters.

Buisson said it would be important to know how much horsemeat was detected in each positive sample, as tiny traces could be the result of accidental contamination at processing plants rather than deliberate substitution. The Commission did not provide that information.

Europe's horsemeat scandal has damaged confidence in parts of the continent's food industry, hitting sales of processed ready-meals and boosting demand for organic produce.

The program of EU-funded DNA tests was approved by member governments in February in a bid to gauge the extent of the problem and restore consumer confidence in the bloc's food safety controls.

The results revealed a mixed picture across the EU. Greece had the second-highest level of positive results with 288 tests yielding 36 positive results, a rate of 12.5 percent. About 1 in every 10 tests also returned positive in Latvia, Denmark and Estonia.

By contrast, Germany found horse DNA in just 3.3 percent of samples, and in the Netherlands the rate was less than 1 percent.

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France tops EU DNA tests for horsemeat in beef