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Swiss retailer withdraws lasagne over 'horsegate'

Malcolm Curtis
Malcolm Curtis - [email protected]
Swiss retailer withdraws lasagne over 'horsegate'
Nestlé's Findus lasagne is horsemeat-free, produced with Swiss beef, the company says

Coop, Switzerland’s second-largest supermarket chain, has withdrawn a brand of lasagne carrying its own name over horsemeat concerns.

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The lasagne is produced by Comigel, a  large French company implicated in the “horsegate” scandal in Britain.

Horsemeat at levels up to 100 percent was found in Findus UK beef lasagnes produced by the Metz-based company and in frozen burgers.

Other products purporting to contain beef have also been found to be horsemeat in Britain.

Comigel said the questionable meat came from Romania.

Coop has pulled all the lasagnes carrying its own brand from its frozen food sections at stores in Switzerland, Tages Anzeiger reported on Tuesday.

The cooperative did so as a precaution because it does not know yet whether any of the lasagnes contain horsemeat.

The Bern cantonal laboratory has tested 30 different samples of prepared lasagne from all major retailers in the country with results expected next week, Tages Anzeiger reported.

Other cantons, including Vaud and Aargau are also testing samples.

Meanwhile, Swiss food giant Nestlé has been forced to mount a PR campaign to remind consumers in Switzerland that its Findus lasagnes are not made by the same company Findus in the UK.

Nestlé said although they share the same name, the two companies are completely separate with different owners.

It emphasized that its Findus lasagne is made from “100 percent Swiss beef” at a plant in Rorschach, on the shores of Lake Constance in the canton of Saint Gallen.

The confusion for consumers has sparked a meeting of European health ministers in Brussels on Wednesday to consider ways to address meat labelling problems.

Horesemeat scandal: just a labelling problem?

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