Bulgaria was among the least affected countries by the scandal that burst out in the beginning of 2013 in the EU regarding the sale of horse meat in the shops, instead of beef. The signal came from Ireland, where lasagna made of horse meat, instead of beef, as it was written on the labels, was found in the supermarkets. The investigation of this affair reached the French company Spangero which was buying meat from Cyprus and a German meat store, from where the goods were shipped to all parts of the European Union. The European Commission ordered an inspection of all beef products across the whole EU to find a possible content of horse meat in the beef products. The commission promised to reimburse 75% of the expenses made for 2250 meat tests.

100 tests were sent form Bulgaria for examination in a specialized German laboratory. In 8 of them traces of horse meat were found in some sausages, minced meat and corned beef. “These results are better that the ones in many EU countries”, contends Yordan Voynov, Chairman of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency. The other good news is that no contents of Phenylbutazone as well as other harmful substances were found in the secretly added horse meat. Phenylbutazone is a pain killing substance injected in the muscles of racing horses, but its use is strictly prohibited in animals whose meat is aimed for consumption.

According to data from the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency, nearly 1000 kilograms of sausages containing horse meat instead of beef were sold in the shops across Bulgaria before the horse meat scandal erupted. There is no threat of the human health, experts form this agency contend, adding that horse meat is even healthier, because it has low fat content and contains more iron than the beef meat. However, the perpetrators of this deceit will be punished. Several Bulgarian companies who did not inform the consumers about the horse meat content in their products will be penalized with fines amounting to up to EUR 5000. Their products with misleading labels were taken out of the shops, including 100 kilograms of Lasagna Bolognese containing horse meat, found in the French supermarket chain Carrefour. The German laboratory found between 50% and 80% horse meat content in this lasagna. The EU competent authorities were informed about all batches where deviations were found through the rapid alert system for food and feed RASFF.

The habit of consumption of horse meat was lost almost a century ago in Bulgaria. Many consumers were shocked by the disclosure that they might have consumed horse meat. Some people think that it is intolerable these beautiful animals to be killed for their meat. Others think that the taste of horse meat is not good. Some think that the taste of horse meat is unknown to them and expect some unpleasant surprises.

Unlike other EU countries where the horse meat products crossed several state borders before reaching the supermarkets, in Bulgaria the horse meat scandal has a local origin. Experts are yet to find out whether the Bulgarian companies were aware that they were buying horse meat instead of beef from the suppliers. They will also investigate how this meat went to the slaughterhouses as horse breeding for meat is not popular in Bulgaria. A publication in a daily newspaper in Bulgaria leads to a criminal trace. A farmer who breeds horse studs freely in the mountains claims in an interview that since 2002, 140 of his horses were shot dead during the nights. The horse meat scandal is yet to be disclosed in Bulgaria.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov