It has recently become increasingly difficult to trade meals across Europe.  Horsemeat has allegedly been disguised as beef to be sold in frozen meals throughout the continent. While authorities are not worried too much about the health effects, it has left consumers unsettled, raising questions about misleading the public.

France is blaming Romanian butchers and Dutch and Cypriot traders as labeling horsemeat as beef before it was packaged in frozen dinners such as lasagna, mussaka, and a French dish similar to Shephard’s Pie. On Monday, Romanian officials defended two plants in a horsemeat scandal, claiming that that meat was properly declared, and if fraud was committed, it had happened elsewhere.

Additonally, in Romania’s defense, one of their slaughterhouse’s Carmolimp said that their meat was properly labeled as horsemeat, and that they had not exported beef in 2012. They claimed the scandal to be shameful, suggesting that only an inadequate French meat processor would think the horsemeat was beef.  Romanian authorities have claimed to have checked paperwork that proves they were not improperly mislabeling the meat before it was shipped to the consumers.

At the end of the week, agriculture ministers from Britain, France, and Romania will meet in Brussels to discuss the scandal. It will take time to retrace the tracks to find where the mislabeled meat began. While this is a worldwide scandal, fortunately, the health risks are not too high.

Michel Barnier, former French agricultural minister, stated that “it was not an issue of food safety, but of justice.” Hopefully the horsemeat scandal will be put to rest by the end of the week, and authorities will be able to solve the issues caused by the initial problem.