The new rotten meat scandal in South Germany grows in
new dimensions. Fifty metric tons in Munich, 40 metric tons in Passau, and 37
metric tons in Regensburg. The Munich management supposes that scruffy product
of a meat wholesaler has been sold not only all over the country, but also in
the European Unions lands.
After the Munich wholesaler, a slaughterhouse in
distric Deggendorf also got under vision of investigators. They are accused
" considerable offence " with storage, processing and sales by meat,
informed public prosecutor's office and police last Firday.
Already on Thursday the police guaranteed there 10,000
kilogrammes of doner kebab meat with which the durability data were partially
crossed about four years. The health centre has called the product according to
the first investigations as " rancid, musty, old and strange ". To
the clarification of the case the criminal investigation department Munich
furnished a special committee "Kühlhaus", means chill house.
The rotten meat from Munich has been imported from
Thailand and from South America, according to an authority speaker. It is
supposed not only nationwide, but also been sold in states of the European
Union (EU). The federal states as well as the EU have been informed about it.
In which EU states the spoilt product was delivered, is up to now unclear.
Only one day later, on Friday, 30 to 40 metric tons of
suspicious duck's meat were confiscated. It was also sold according to police.
Because the investigations go on, " the whole magnitude is not foreseeable
yet ", said a speaker of the of a circle management seminar paper.
Besides, there are clues that the scruffy product not only all over the
country, but also in lands of the European Union has been sold, said the
speaker.
At the same time in Passau the second meat scandal flew
up in the administrative district: With a Deggendorf trader the police
guaranteed 40 metric tons partially spoilt meat. The first knowledge confirmed
the suspicion, " that meat was not able of pleasure in the meat company
any more, was brought in trade in the past", according to the public
prosecutor's office of Deggendorf.
In a chill house in Regensburg 37 metric tons of meat
of the most different kind which should be shipped via Holland to Hong Kong
camped down. " An already loaded transporter was stopped by the police and
was unloaded again. " In a cold storage room not approved for commercial
purposes under a garage in the administrative district Deggendorf the investigators found an other
metric ton of meat. It is determined against the 53-year-old owner of the meat
company of the suspicion of the deception and different offence against the
food right.
Already last year several meat scandals had provided
in Germany for sensation. Among the rest, partly rotten meat tests had been
found with a Deggendorf meat trader. The public prosecutor's office food
brought charges against a meat trader in Gelsenkirchen, in the meantime. As a
consequence from the scandal the Federal Government has improved the rights for
consumers and has put through a law which obliges, among the rest, authorities to
more information about food.
The chairperson of the Green faction of the national parliament of the Federal Republique
of Germany or Bundestag,
Renate Künast, criticised the Federal Government and the person responsible in
Bavaria. Thus place shortenings would have led in the free state apparently to
the fact that the controllers " had insufficiently the finger on it
", said the former consumer protection minister. Besides, one cannot state
in view of the case that her office successor Horst Seehofer (CSU party) has
" his homework done ".
For consumer protection organization “Foodwatch”, Thilo Bode, the present laws are
not enough to protect consumer against rotten meat. " Finally, the laws
here which provide for more transparence have to do it. The names of the rotten
meat companies must be published and the punishments must become harder, but
nothing will change ", said the chairperson of the consumer's organisation in the " ZDF of midday magazine ". " It is
important to understand that it concerns here a political problem and the
consumers have much fewer rights than the food industry ", said Bode.