The EU's executive called in Europe's law enforcers and urged bloc-wide DNA food testing on Wednesday to restore consumer confidence in a widening scandal over horsemeat-tainted processed food. "We do not know exactly what has gone wrong," British food and environment minister Owen Paterson told reporters after emergency talks in Brussels and amid growing public anger over mislabelled meat products. As he prepared to drive to the headquarters of the Europol law enforcement agency in The Hague, he warned: "We have to get to the bottom of these cases."

An equine drug that can harm humans has been found in horse carcasses exported from Britain to France and may have entered the human food chain, British agriculture minister David Heath said Thursday. But the drug phenylbutazone was not found in tests on products made by Findus, the frozen food giant embroiled in a Europe-wide horsemeat scandal, Heath told parliament. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) tested the carcasses of 206 horses slaughtered in Britain for traces of the painkiller, also known as "bute", which in rare cases can cause a serious blood disorder in humans.

The French government on Thursday said the French firm Spanghero knowingly sold around 750 tonnes of horsemeat as beef and that it was suspending the licence that allowed it to handle meat. Consumer Affairs Minister Benoit Hamon said the "fraud" had gone on for months and that 550 tonnes of the falsely labelled meat were sent to French firm Comigel, which makes frozen food at its Tavola factory in Luxembourg. Hamon said Spanghero would be prosecuted.

LONDON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Britain's Food Standards Agency (FSA) said six horses slaughtered in the UK that tested positive for the drug phenylbutazone were exported to France and may have entered the human food chain. Phenylbutazone, commonly known as bute, is an anti-inflammatory painkiller for sporting horses but banned for animals intended for eventual human consumption as it is potentially harmful.