You're reading: Russia says horse-tainted hot dogs shipped from EU

MOSCOW - Hot dogs tainted with horse meat have been imported to Russia from theEuropean Union, the country's agricultural oversight agency said on Wednesday, Feb.27 in the first concrete sign of the food mislabelling scandal reaching Moscow.

Horse DNA was found in a shipment delivered to the Moscow region from Austria, and Russia was now considering taking unspecified “protective measures”, officials from the Rosselkhoznadzor agency told media.

Russia has clashed with the EU, its biggest trading partner, over food imports before.

It banned EU vegetable imports for months in 2011 over a deadly E.coli outbreak in a move that the bloc called disproportionate.

The scandal over horse meat sold as beef erupted in Europe last month, prompting product withdrawals, government investigations and a cross-border blame game.

Russian officials said earlier this month they were concerned processed foods containing horse meat might have been re-exported to Russia and questioned food safety controls in Europe.

Tests conducted by the agency showed the hot dogs, labelled as purely pork, also contained chicken DNA and soy, Rosselkhoznadzor official Vera Makova told state television.

Experts would determine exactly where the hot dogs were made and prohibit sales of products from that producer, Interfax quoted Rosselkhoznadzor chief Sergei Dankvert as saying.

Russian officials also planned to take the “protective measures” after speaking by phone to EU consumer protection officials on Thursday, the news agency reported.