Findus is preparing to take legal action against its suppliers after an internal investigation found that the horse meat contamination in its Beef Lasagne was “not accidental”.
A statement from the company said: "Findus is taking legal advice about the grounds for pursuing a case against its suppliers, regarding what they believe is their suppliers’ failure to meet contractual obligations about product integrity.
"The early results from Findus UK’s internal investigation strongly suggests that the horsemeat contamination in Beef Lasagne was not accidental."
This announcement comes following the Environmental Secretary stating he expects more contamination to be found in other food as the Scotland Yard investigation continues. Speaking at emergency talks with industry leaders, including Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Asda, Owen Paterson said: "There may well be more bad results coming through, that's the point of doing this random analysis."
He added: "This is a conspiracy against the public. Selling a product as beef, and including a lot of horse in it is fraud."
However, he went on to say that retailers hold the "ultimate responsibility" for making sure that horse meat is not in their products.
The events of the past few weeks have led to a blame game across European suppliers as Spanghero, the French company who supplied the meat for the lasagne, announced they will sue their Romanian suppliers.
The firm's President Bartholemy Aguerre said today: "We bought European origin beef and we resold it. If it really is horse meat, we are going to go after the Romanian supplier."