Coveney cites 'mass erosion of trust'

Horse meat:The horse meat scandal will spur tougher and more frequent EU food tests, the chief executive of Greencore told the Ibec conference.

Patrick Coveney said the horse meat crisis had led to “mass erosion in trust in food”.

Greencore is among the companies embroiled in the scandal after it confirmed it manufactured bolognese sauce for UK supermarket chain Asda that contained horse meat.

“There is a loss of confidence in the food supply chain. There has been a 40 per cent drop in the purchase of processed beef in the UK.”

Mr Coveney said there needed to be an EU-wide solution to the horse meat crisis in terms of common standards, common testing and EU regulation.

“The handling of this and the solution to this cannot exist in an individual member country. There has to be a European solution. Consumers deserve testing. Testing is 50 times more frequent now than it was before Christmas.”

He said the revelations would lead to a “pretty dramatic change in the supply chain”.

“There will be a move to local. Food eventually will be quite rightly what it says on the packet.”

While officials have said no risk to public health exists from the adulterated foods, and that testing for horse medicine in meat was only being done as a precaution, Mr Coveney said officials missed the point when they said it is not a safety issue.