Spanghero has been named by the French government as the likely culprit in the “horsemeat scandal” which involves Comigel in Metz and its subsidiary Tavola in Luxembourg selling ready-made lasagnes containing horsemeat, that was labelled “100% beef”, to Findus in the UK and Ireland.

Spanghero’s operating license had been temporarily withdrawn, France’s agriculture minister, Stéphane Le Foll, said at a news conference in Paris on Thursday.

More than 4.5 million food products, representing more than a thousand tons, are involved in the case, Benoît Hamon, the French consumer affairs minister (pictured in a 2012 photo), said during the same press conference.

Comigel produces packaged meals for companies across Europe, many of which are prepared at its Tavola unit in Capellen. The Luxembourg and French governments both said the company voluntarily recalled the products earlier this month, after the British and Irish food safety agencies detected horse DNA in some of the firm’s meals.

Complex supply chain

Comigel ordered beef from Spanghero, based in Castelnaudary, about 60 kilometres southeast of Toulouse. Spanghero then procured the meat through a Dutch subcontractor, which used its Cyprus subsidiary to order horse meat from Romanian slaughterhouses.

The Tavola plant in Capellen received more than 500 tonnes of meat through this supply chain, Hamon said.

Earlier reports that the Romanian firms had mis-labelled the meat were rejected by the consumer affairs minister during the press conference.

Hamon reported that French consumer safety agency DGCCRF discovered multiple cases of “non-conforming” labeling or “re-labeling” of the meat, adding that the “companies involved in this case and must provide an explanation of these findings of fraud.”

Investigators found invoices at Spanghero’s offices that clearly indicate horsemeat was sold, the minister said. The case is being referred to the French public prosecutor’s office, although the DGCCRF will continue checking Spranghero’s other customers and other companies that purchased meat via the Dutch meat broker.

Fraud charges denied

“Spanghero formally contests having ordered horsemeat,” the company said in a statement issued shortly after the press conference. “Spranghero formally contests having knowingly resold horsemeat.” The firm said it had ordered, received and resold meat that it thought was beef, and would fully cooperate with all the investigations.

Comigel is not totally in the clear. The group may be liable for not having detected that the meat was mis-labelled.

On Wednesday, the company’s CEO, Erick Lehagre, told Delano that he did not want to comment on the case before the French government issued its report. As of 10:30 a.m. on Friday, he had not responded to Delano’s subsequent request for comment.