Trader in horse meat scandal goes bankrupt

The judge in Zutphen decided that Van Hattem Vlees, famous for the horse meet scandal, is to be declared bankrupt.

The meat processing company from Dodewaard had already been deferred payment after it ran into difficulties because of its involvement in the horse meat scandal.

Early this year Van Hattem Vlees was discredited because of tampering with horse meat. The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) stopped the production at Van Hatten early this year. The company is not allowed to butcher or to trade.

In addition the meat processor had to remove 15 thousand tons of meat from the market because the NVWA had discovered that several dozen horses and ponies had disappeared in the administration of the company. The NVWA suspected that the cheap meat from these animals was incorporated into shredded beef.

70 people worked at Van Hattem Vlees. The board has now established a new company under the name Dutch Meat Company.