Horsemeat Scandal Spreads across Europe.docVIP

Horsemeat Scandal Spreads across Europe 　　年初，爱尔兰在牛肉汉堡中检测出马肉的DNA，此后瑞典、英国和法国的部分牛肉制品中也发现了马肉。随着调查的深入，爱尔兰、荷兰、罗马尼亚等多个欧洲国家卷入丑闻中，食品安全问题再次引起人们的极大关注和担忧。 　　The horsemeat scandal has spread across Europe， raising food safety concerns in the Continent. Authorities are now trying to trace the meat’s circuitous path across Europe to prevent future problems. 　　Up to now， horsemeat has been discovered in products labeled as 100 percent beef and sold in the UK， France， Sweden and many other European countries. In Ireland， ten out of 27 hamburgers were found containing horse DNA. In one sample from Tesco―Britain’s largest grocery chain―the horsemeat accounted for about 29% of the hamburgers. Horsemeat even has found its way into British school dinners. Horse DNA has been found in cottage pies sent to 47 schools in Lancashire. 　　Europeans are now extremely concerned with food security. In Britain， people are starting to ask whether they should eat frozen foods. Authorities checked the ready meat on sale in supermarket as the horsemeat scandal came to light. Many beef products were taken off the shelves. In Cyprus， over 16 tons of hamburgers have been destroyed on Thursday following the horsemeat scandal. 　　At first， two slaughterhouses in Romania were suspected as the sources of the horsemeat. Rural poverty has forced some farmers there to sell their horses to slaughterhouses while the price of horsemeat is about half that of beef. Romania has sold more than 6，000 tons of horse， mule and donkey meat to European states in 2012. 　　But Romanian Prime Minister denied the possibility. He explained that “one of them exports only horsemeat， which means the wrong label was practically impossible. The second exports horsemeat and beef， and has a seven?year experience ... and our controls do not confirm any wrong labelling at the second unit， either.” 　　And further researches showed that the contaminated beef in Britain was processed by a French company. 　　Britain’s Food Standards Agency