An informal meeting of Agriculture Ministers from Member States and the EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, Tonio Borg was held on 13 January 2013. The meeting in Brussels aimed at sharing information of the extend of the problem of misslabelling of processed meat products especially in the UK and several other Member States. After the application of DNA testing technology horse meat had been found in a range of processed beef products.

At the meeting in Brussels, Ministers together with Tonio Borg agreed on an EU-wide three month programme of control measures including random DNA testing of beef products across the EU Member States and testing for horsemeat residues in slaughterhouses. The testing should be carried out in March 2013 and the intention of the programme is to present the findings to the European Commission as well as to publish findings of the first testing on 15 April 2013. On the basis of the results from all three testing months, the EU will apply further measures to eliminate such cases.

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