Irish plant sent horse labeled ‘beef’ to Czechs

DUBLIN — Ireland’s government says an Irish meat processor has been discovered sending horse meat mislabeled as beef to a company in the Czech Republic.

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney says investigations by fraud detectives have found that B&F Meats in the town of Carrick-on-Suir was shipping meat to the Czech company using labels in Czech describing the product as beef. He says police and agriculture officials shut down B&F’s operations Friday.

Ireland previously had found no evidence to show that any horses slaughtered in Ireland ended up in the human food chain. Earlier investigations traced the discovery of horse meat in Irish-produced beef burgers to imports from Poland.

Coveney says he is “seriously concerned about this development.”