LONDON– A Europe-wide food fraud scandal over horsemeat sold as beef deepened Saturday as two companies at the centre of the row took legal action and governments said criminal activity was suspected.Frozen food giant Findus lodged a legal complaint in France after evidence showed the presence of horse in its beef lasagne was “not accidental”, while a French meat-processing firm said it would sue its Romanian supplier.Romania -- to where the horsemeat has been traced after a complex trail leading through Cyprus and the Netherlands that The Sun newspaper in Britain dubbed a “hoofdunnit” -- announced an urgent inquiry into two abattoirs.Britain said this week that the Findus lasagne and two meals sold by supermarket chain Aldi contained up to 100 percent horsemeat, and products containing horse have subsequently been found in France and Sweden.The consumption of horsemeat is particularly taboo in Britain, whose environment minister Owen Paterson on Saturday took the reins of a crisis meeting of retailers and officials amid growing public concern.“This is a conspiracy against the public. Selling a product as beef and including a lot of horse in it is fraud,” Paterson said after the meeting.British authorities have said they are testing to see whether the horsemeat contains a veterinary drug that can be dangerous to humans. They have also refused to rule out that horsemeat could be found in school meals.The Findus and Aldi meals were assembled by French food manufacturer Comigel using meat that was provided by Spanghero, a meat-processing company also based in France.Agencies
