The president of French meat processor Spanghero promised on Friday to disprove allegations that his firm knowingly sold horsemeat labeled as beef, and accused the government of being too quick to point the finger.
Consumer Affairs Minister Benoit Hamon released on Thursday details of an investigation into the firm which he said indicated Spanghero was the likely culprit in a scandal that has enraged consumers across Europe and implicated traders and abattoirs from Cyprus to Romania.
"I don't know who is behind this, but I can tell you it's not us. I'm astonished," Spanghero boss Barthelemy Aguerre told Europe 1 radio. "I think we will prove our innocence and that of my associates. I think the government has been too quick."
A French inquiry into how horsemeat got into ready meals sold across Europe found that the Spanghero firm labeled meat as beef when it knew what it was processing may have been horse.
Hamon said that Spanghero could not have failed to notice the meat it was importing was much cheaper than beef, and there was no indication that a Romanian firm supplying the meat had mislabeled what was in fact horsemeat.
Outside Spanghero's factory in the town of Castelnaudary near Toulouse in southwest France, workers were seen filling up dumper trucks with blocks of meat and sausages on Friday, although it was not immediately clear why they were doing so.
The privately-owned firm, which was founded by brothers of 1970s French rugby captain Walter Spanghero, has had its operating license suspended for 10 days and will face legal action if the suspicions are confirmed.
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