Dive Brief:
- The first prosecutions regarding the 2013 horse meat scandal in Europe resulted in a fine and prison sentence, but more could arise after a Dutch trial currently underway.
- According to Food Safety News, slaughterhouse owner Peter Boddy acknowledged failing to follow the traceability regulations enforced by the European Union and not following “field to fork” traceability standards. He was fined about $12,000.
- Slaughterhouse manager David Moss received a four-month prison sentence that would be suspended for two years after confessing he falsified an invoice for the number of horses sold in a deal on Feb. 12, 2013.
Dive Insight:
Southwark Crown Court Judge Alistair McCreath presided over the case. He concluded, "It is impossible to avoid a suspicion, even a strong one, that behind the activities disclosed by this investigation was some degree of complicity, together with others – those who sold the live horses to the abattoir, and those who received the horse meat thereafter – in putting into the human food chain, under the guise of some other meat, what was in fact horse meat," reported Food Safety News.