So hungry, you could eat a horse?
Beef lasagne meals sold by Findus were up to 99 per cent horse, it emerged last night. The food giant has now been ordered to test the dishes for a cancer-causing painkiller used by vets. Ministers were rapped over the scandal and customers warned to take meals back to shops. Findus admitted it had no idea how long the products had been on sale or how many families had bought them. Tests on 18 sample meals found 11 were at least 60 per cent horse while one was virtually nothing but. The findings – which raised the spectre of human food being contaminated with vets’ drugs – are a major humiliation for the Government.
Labour shadow environment secretary Mary Creagh accused it of being "complacent" over the scandal's scale and whether fraud was involved. She said: “British ministers are asleep on the job. This is no longer just a food safety issue but possibly an international criminal trade.” Red-faced officials at the Food Standards Agency have urged families who bought the ready meals to take them back to shops unopened. And they ordered Findus to check whether the lasagne contained phenylbutazone — an animal painkiller linked to harmful effects, including potentially causing cancer, in humans.
Findus only admitted a problem with the meals after The Sun reported it had recalled them. The dishes affected are all frozen Findus Beef Lasagne, 320g, 360g and 500g sizes. A spokesman said: "Samples were taken from a variety of products. Some samples were as low as 5 per cent and one was 99 per cent." The products were bought from Comigel, a French meat supplier. Tesco has withdrawn an Everyday Value Spaghetti Bolognese bought from the same source in Metz, north east France.
source: www.thesun.co.uk
to emerge – nyilvánosságra kerülni/felszínre kerülni
giant – óriás
to order – utasítani/rendelni
cancer-causing – rákot okozó
painkiller – fájdalomcsillapító
vet – állatorvos
to be rapped over something – kritizálni/hibáztatni
scandal – botrány
customer – vevő/ügyfél
to warn – figyelmeztetni
to admit – bevallani/beismerni
to have no idea – halvány fogalma sincs
sample – minta
virtually – gyakorlatilag
findings – felfedezés/ténymegállapítás
to raise – (fel)emelni/növelni/fokozni
spectre – (itt)jelenség
to contaminate – fertőzni/(be)szennyezni
humiliation – szégyen
labour shadow environment secretary – munkáspárti árnyékkormány környezetvédelmi párttitkár
to accuse – vádolni
complacent – engedékeny/udvarias
scale – mérték/szint
fraud – csalás
red-faced – zavarban levő
to urge – sürgetni/késztetni
ready meal – készétel
unopened – kibontatlan(ul)
to contain – tartalmazni
harmful effect – káros hatás
to cause – okozni/eredményezni
affected – érintett
spokesman – szóvivő
to recall – visszavonni
variety – választék
supplier – szállító/ellátó
to withdraw – visszavonni
