Corned Beef Scandal

- Published: 19 January, 2007

An investigation is underway in France after more than a million cans of corned beef were withdrawn because the meat is unfit for human consumption.

A major meat distributor, Covi, and two processors, Charel and Soviba, are implicated in the case, which was sparked last November when Covi was inspected by the veterinary services.

Since then 1.2m cans of corned beef have been taken off shelves across Europe.

The ministry of agriculture has accussed Covi of distributing a product that breaks France's food safety rules.

"An investigation is in hand in the suppliers of the raw materials in question, and company Covi was placed under reinforced veterinary control," said the ministry of agriculture in a statement.