We ask Health and Consumers Commissioner Tonio Borg what has been learned and how consumer confidence can be restored.

Interview: How will the EU handle the horsemeat scandal?

Tonio Borg, Commissioner  for Health and Consumers,

you've come in and had  the horsemeat scandal dropped on you,

which must be considered  as very bad luck...

Are there any lessons that have  been learnt in this early stage?

in the sense that it was a Member State  which discovered this fraud.

And the enforcement of the legislation  which is in place -

so it's not a question  of absence of legislation -

functioned in the sense  that it was enforced

by the Member State concerned, Ireland,  which discovered the fraud.

Once that was notified and another case  arose in the United Kingdom,

the Commission is now coordinating  a string of inspections

which are being co-financed  by the European Commission itself.

Lessons learnt. Yes, we are preparing  a package of legislation

which was prepared  well before this incident.

But now we would like to add the proposal

that we can not only  recommend certain inspections

but it will be binding on Member States  to carry them out.

Whatever we do, the chance of someone  breaking the law is always there.

The important thing is that  once someone is caught

the investigations lead to criminal trials

and the appropriate punishment  is meted out.

You said this was found  in a routine check in Ireland,

but it was a random check  and they're fairly infrequent.

Ireland only has 15 inspectors.  Perhaps this has been going on a long time.

It could be, but of course it's thanks  to the modern means of testing

Up to 10 years ago, DNA testing  on food products for animal species

So it's thanks to this modern technology,  and now the results are coming out.

The inspections are in the hands  of the Member States.

This was discovered  in a random inspection

of the cheapest kind of hamburgers  in a supermarket in Ireland,

Whether one should increase  the inspections

depends a lot on the financial and  human resources in the Member States.

Do not forget that this is one incident  out of millions of transactions

We have a single market  of 500 million consumers.

Even the initial tests indicate  that a very small percentage

has been affected by this fraud. But it's  a serious breach of consumer confidence.

But it's a fraud rather than a health issue.  -It's a fraud.

It does seem that criminal gangs  were involved in this.

It's not just a mistake, is it?  -That is too early to state.

It will depend on the results  of the inspections.

With the results of the inspections  in March, we can come to a conclusion

as to whether this is ordinary  criminal activity or more than that.

Are we going to see labelling  for the ingredients in processed food?

For the ingredients it's already in place  as regards animal species.

The question is,  should we include place of origin?

That is to say, not only for fresh beef,  which is already in place,

but should we know the place of origin  for minced meat

when it's in processed food?  There's an impact assessment on that.

I must say this is completely unrelated  to the current incident.

This incident would have happened even  if we had the place of origin legislation.

But a growing number of Member States  are insisting

we should take this opportunity  as a springboard to introduce

more labelling legislation for transparency  purposes. We are considering that.

How will you and the Commission  restore confidence?

It has been shaken.  -It's not about food safety.

It's important not to create panic  where there's no need for it.

Secondly, the results of the inspections  will be published as soon as possible.

I argue that it's useless to have  the inspections, to co-finance them,

and then to hide the results.  They should be public and transparent

to allay certain fears  that this is widespread everywhere.

It seems that this is a small percentage,  but still a serious infringement.

Finally, is this partly  down to the fact that,

because consumers expect to spend  so much less on food now

than we used to, say, 30 years ago  as a percentage of income,

the producers search for  the cheapest sources of meat and...

No, I think it's a question of fraud,  a question of making gain from fraud.

The purpose of this fraud  was economic gain.

This is in violation of European Union  laws and there is no excuse for that.