trader who sold the frozen meat to Spanghero. The meat was then sent to Comigel who makes the end consumer product. The French authority DGCCRF (Directorate General for Competition, Consumer affairs and Repression of Fraud) inspected Spanghero on Friday 8 February and was able to review the traceability of documents for the concerned batches on the past 4 months, which attests of the conformity of Spanghero's procedures. The French fraud office, the DGCCRF investigation is going on, and inspectors are visiting both the Comigel and Spanghero plants. The investigation's results should be known on 14 February and they will determine the fraud source. Spanghero is working jointly with the authorities on this investigation. Public health scientists suspect the horse meat may contain traces of bute which is harmful to humans in large amounts. Spanghero had to withdraw of mince in June 2011, because of suspected contamination by E.coli, which causes potentially fatal food poisoning. This contamination happened to be a false alarm. Spanghero products did not contain E.coli and the French authority DGCCRF cleared Spanghero on 22 June 2011. In a public letter later that day, 11 firms, including Tesco and Asda, said they shared shoppers' "anger and outrage". Whitbread vowed to remedy the unacceptable situation on 26 February. The FSA's chief executive, Catherine Brown also said "it is unlikely we will ever know" how many unwittingly ate horse meat. In 2016, all Findus products were removed from UK supermarkets. In 2019, a new recipe and name were introduced for Findus' crispy pancakes. Findus was not the only perpetrator, as Compass Group, the world's biggest catering firm, Sodexo the French contract caterer to hospitals, schools and defence sites and Whitbread, Britain's biggest hotel and hospitality group, were both indicted for illegally selling concealed horse meat in food products. References External links Food brands of the United Kingdom Food and drink companies of Sweden Frozen food brands Products introduced in 1945 Former Unilever brands