Horsemeat scandal: Three men face trial over conspiring to sell contaminated meat as beef
In 2013 supermarkets were rocked by the horsemeat contamination crisis with products labelled as beef and other meats found to contain various amounts of horse flesh
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Three men have appeared in court over allegations they passed horsemeat off as beef.
Andronicos Sideras, 54, Ulrik Nielsen, 57, from Denmark, and Alex Beech, 44, were accused of arranging beef and horsemeat to be combined and then sold in the UK’s meat industry as beef.
The men were accused of mixing horsemeat with beef, with the combined product later sold as beef, between 1 January 2012 and 31 October 2012.
In 2013, supermarkets were rocked by the horsemeat contamination crisis - dubbed the horsemeat scandal - with products labelled as beef and other meats found to contain various amounts of horse flesh.
Horse DNA was found in frozen meat products in several British and Irish supermarkets including Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, Iceland and Dunnes Stores.
The trio appeared at City of London magistrate’s court on Tuesday
They were jointly charged with conspiracy to defraud following a complex international criminal investigation by the City of London police, in which the Food Standards Agency and Crown Prosecution service teamed up with law enforcement agencies across Europe.
Beech, from Highfield Close, Hull, and Sideras, of Friars Walk, Southgate, north London, were first arrested and questioned in July 2013.
Nielsen, from Gentofte, near Copenhagen, was interviewed under caution in Hull the following month.
Magistrates bailed the men and they have been ordered to appear at Inner London Crown Court on 25 October.
Additional reporting by Press Association