Owen Paterson: The bond of trust has been broken

The events of the last month, where a number of beef products on our shelves have been found to contain horsemeat, are truly shocking. It's wholly unacceptable that if people buy products marked beef, they turn out to contain horsemeat instead.

My first priority through this has been for consumers. That's why I've been leading a rapid response to the problem that involves the vital tracing and enforcement work by the Food Standards Agency, achieving clear action in Europe and ensuring that food businesses throughout the industry are taking action to reassure consumers.

Two weeks ago I brought representatives from the food industry together and asked them to conduct an unprecedented survey of all their processed beef products. When the FSA published the first of these results, out of 2,501 tests, 99 per cent were completely clear of horse DNA. The 29 samples that were positive for horse DNA involved products that we already knew about and that had already been taken off the shelves.

The results of any outstanding tests will be published on March 1. After that, food businesses will update the FSA on their test results every three months.

We've already seen arrests in the UK thanks to the investigations led by the FSA that have been going on since this problem first emerged in Ireland a month ago.

However, it's increasingly clear that there is a web of criminal activity that spreads across Europe. That's why I brought about an urgent meeting of agriculture ministers from other affected countries to get coordinated action across Europe to reassure consumers and prosecute the perpetrators.

We met last week, and agreed all five actions of the plan I propose. These are already being implemented.

Most importantly we agreed to introduce a programme of DNA testing of beef products, whether made in the EU or imported from elsewhere. This will begin immediately.

We agreed to have a further discussion with agriculture ministers from all 27 EU members at the next Council meeting.We also agreed an improved intelligence-sharing system so that new information about the current investigations in different countries can be shared immediately. This will enable other member states to act straight away if they have any suspicions that food businesses are not playing by the rules.

Crucially, I wanted Europol to co-ordinate criminal investigations that are stretching across Europe. That has now been agreed.

The UK was the first country to contact Europol about this food fraud and to instigate proceedings.

It is clear that we are facing a criminal conspiracy to defraud the public and it's absolutely vital that we bring any wrongdoers to justice. It's just as vital that food businesses and government work together to restore people's trust in the food they're buying.

We can strengthen the system, and I've made clear to Commissioner Borg and my colleagues in Europe that the current system is too reliant on paper, and too reliant on trust that the product matches the paperwork.

I'm clear that there needs to be much more testing of products, and that's one area where food businesses must play a serious role. Food safety is a European competence and under Regulation 178/2002 food business operators have 'primary legal responsibility for ensuring food safety'. They also have a legal duty to customers about authenticity of food they sell.

I held an urgent meeting of food businesses, including retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers and trade bodies, two days after horsemeat was found in Findus lasagnes. We have met twice since then to ensure interim test results would be published by the FSA and everything possible is being done to re-build confidence.

The food businesses have assured me that they will pursue this until they have established the full picture. There is still a big job to do to convince consumers that they've taken the right steps to stop this happening again. Food businesses need to be doing everything possible to rebuild the certainty and trust consumers deserve.

I do have faith in our farmers, our traceability and the quality of our food production systems. I am determined that criminal action by a minority must not damage the reputation or integrity of our largest manufacturing industry. So we will not rest until we have established how this happened and how we can prevent it happening again.

Those who have broken the law will be prosecuted and we will make sure the system is stronger so that consumers can once again have confidence in the products on our shelves.