Russia seeks EU guarantees over horsemeat scandal

MOSCOW (AP) – Russia may suspend meat imports from European Union nations because of the horsemeat scandal, an official said Thursday.

Gennady Onishchenko, Russia’s chief sanitary official, told Ekho Moskvy radio that he has sent a letter to the European Commission requesting a guarantee that meat products sold to Russia don’t contain horse meat.

Onishchenko said that Russia would have to temporarily suspend meat imports from EU nations if the bloc fails to provide the assurances, and also called on Russians to choose locally produced meat.

Bulgaria, Portugal and Spain on Thursday became the latest countries to detect horsemeat in food products labelled as beef in the widening European food scandal.

In Bulgaria, the government said that DNA tests conducted in Germany had found imported frozen dishes being sold in a supermarket chain to be as high as 80 per cent horse meat. The tests were ordered last week when suspicious frozen lasagna dishes were with