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Slaughterhouse and meat firm raided Slaughterhouse and meat firm raided
(35 minutes later)
A West Yorkshire slaughterhouse and an Aberystwyth meat firm have been raided by police and the Food Standards Agency. A slaughterhouse and a meat firm have been raided by police and food safety officials probing alleged mislabelling of beef products as horsemeat.
The raids are part of the inquiries into the alleged mis-labelling of beef products that contain horsemeat. Peter Boddy Licensed Slaughterhouse, in West Yorkshire, and Farmbox Meats Ltd, Aberystwyth, have had work suspended.
Authorities are looking into how meat products, purporting to be beef for kebabs and burgers, were sold when they were in fact horse. Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said it was unacceptable if UK firms were defrauding the public.
Meanwhile, Waitrose withdrew frozen beef meatballs after pork was detected. Meanwhile, Waitrose withdrew its Essential British Frozen Beef Meatballs after pork was detected in two batches.
The raids on Tuesday were at Peter Boddy Licensed Slaughterhouse in Todmorden, which the Food Standards Agency said it believed supplied horse carcasses to Farmbox Meats Ltd, Llandre. The Food Standards Agency suspended operations at both the raided premises, detained all meat found and seized paperwork, including customer lists from the two companies.
Both West Yorkshire and Dyfed-Powys police entered the premises with the FSA.
Mr Paterson 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."
FSA director of operation Andrew Rhodes said: "I ordered an audit of all horse-producing abattoirs in the UK after this issue first arose last month, and I was shocked to uncover what appears to be a blatant misleading of consumers.
"I have suspended both plants immediately while our investigations continue."
'Full force of law'
The latest developments come ahead of a meeting between Mr Paterson, supermarkets and food producers as the horsemeat contamination scandal spreads.
He told MPs during a Commons debate earlier that "too much is taken on trust" when it comes to verifying meat supplies.
At Waitrose, a spokeswoman said it had had "contradictory results" from tests on the frozen beef meatballs.
She said all had tested negative for horse DNA, but one test had indicated the presence of some pork.
"We have withdrawn two batches of these products as pork is not listed as a product in the recipe."
The products have a best before date of the end of June 13 and the end of August 13.