Nestle, embroiled in European food labeling scandal, says U.S. products not affected

Nestle, the world’s largest food company whose U.S. operations are based in Glendale, says a fast-moving scandal in Europe over mislabeled food products tainted with horse meat is isolated to overseas markets.

The controversy over mislabeled meat in millions of frozen dinners, pastas, stews and other products took a turn for the worse this week when Nestle found horse DNA in some of its products, the L.A. Times reported. And testing of meals yanked from store shelves and freezers in Britain and Germany has turned up traces of a powerful equine painkiller deemed harmful to humans.

The scandal erupted last month when Irish food safety authorities found horse meat in frozen burgers labeled as pure beef. It has since spread to 13 other countries, according to The Times.

In a story posted by the New York Times on Tuesday, Nestle said its U.S. operations do not use meat sourced from Europe.

“Additionally, U.S.D.A. meat inspectors are in all processing plants and also have responsibility to oversee any imported meat,” the company said. “We have also requested and received confirmation from all our meat suppliers that they do not provide Nestle U.S.A. with any meat from the affected countries and companies.”

--Jason Wells, Times Community News

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