What the horsemeat scandal tells us about food traceability

Early in 2013, the United Kingdom and then the whole European continent were startled at the discovery of a major food safety scandal. Some beef lasagne manufactured by a major industrial food company was proved to be made up to 100% horsemeat. Not only is this story revealing the risk that has threatened consumers for a while. As a matter of fact, it also suggests how little we know about the processed food we eat.

On the very first week of February 2013, Findus withdrew its beef lasagne from the European market. A few days before that the British Food Standard Agency made out that those products marketed as beef meat actually contained horsemeat. Findus might have been suspected of deceiving consumers at first. But it did not take long before the manufacturer actually apologised for putting those products on the market and started an investigation about them.

In the United Kingdom, the horsemeat scandal made a really clear point in consumers’ mind. People need to know what is inside their plate and incorrect advertisement is not to be tolerated. The story has highlighted how easily the trust between producers and consumers could be sapped. But this is not the only lesson of it. In a way, one might consider Findus a victim among a lot of others, caught in an extremely complex system which makes it almost impossible to control what a business sell before a consumer buys it!

Findus’ investigation established that the incriminated food products were prepared by a French supplier called Comigel based in Metz, in the North of France. Comigel had worked for Findus since 2011 and had prepared the products in Luxemburg. The meat Comigel used was bought from another French society, Spanghero, set in south of the country. As a customer of a French supplier, Comigel expected to buy French-gown meat from Spanghero. But Findus taught Comigel that Spanghero’s meat actually came from Romania.

In Romania, the whole industrial chain of Findus discovered that the slaughterhouses which provided meat to Spanghero processed beef meat as well as horse meat. That discovery allowed Findus to reassure consumers since the slaughterhouses were certified by the European Union and allowed to produced beef and horse meat that was destined to human consumption. However, the investigation showed that no less than five intermediaries, including supermarkets, had taken a part in selling those products to consumers. And none of them really knew what was inside the products until the scandal burst out!

Findus withdrew its contaminated products from the marking. And yet this story still has lessons to teach. The fact is that organisation of the global food industry today makes efficient traceability a very difficult goal to reach. Of course, producers like Findus are not completely blind and are able to control what their products are made of. But the horsemeat scandal illustrates that systemic factors tend to make information about the products uncertain.

Besides, a lot of companies around the world use the long complex industrial food chain to keep some secret. Let us think about Coca-Cola. Do people really know what is inside of their favourite soda? Of course they don’t since Coca-Cola makes a point of keeping its recipe unique. That the structure of food industry be inclined to opaqueness is not necessarily a danger. Nobody has ever died from drinking Coke, neither has anybody from eating Findus’ lasagne. Yet one question remains without an answer: which independent institution today controls that traceability standards are respected in the food industry and prevents major food-related sanitary scandals from happening?

In many regards was the horsemeat scandal an important phenomenon. It both illustrated the fundamental need for transparency on the food market and how difficult traceability was to establish in the food industry. Revealing the flaws of a system, this story might very well be the call for a new start in the food industry.