Meat racket ‘unrelated’

Press, 25 October 1982, Page 8

Meat racket ‘unrelated’

NZPA Canberra Reports of kangaroo meat being sold in West Germany as beef are totally unrelated to Australia’s export meat inspection system, the Primary Industry Minister, Mr Peter Nixon, said yesterday. He said that the Federal Government had been advised that a West German meat importer had appeared in court in Hamburg at the week-end charged with repacking various types of meat, including kangaroo, and labelling it as beef. Mr Nixon said that there had been no substitution in Australia of kangaroo meat for other products for the West German market, and there had been no fault in the Australian export inspection and certification processes. West Germany had in recent years become a significant importer of kangaroo

game meat for human consumption, said Mr Nixon. “It is produced under stringent conditions in Australia and certified by the export inspection service as kangaroo meat fit for human consumption,” he said. Reports at the week-end from Mainz in West Germany outlined at SUS 2.4 million meat substitution racket involving 1.6 million kilos of kangaroo and donkey meat sold as beef, veal and pork. Reports said that the racket had led to six arrests. The German meat substitution racket came after the kangaroo and donkey meat substitution scandal in Australia, which led to a royal commission and a complete overhaul of the meat inspection service. The scandal arose after kangaroo and other species of meat were found in meat packs exported to the United