BRUSSELS, Feb 15 (Reuters) - European Union governments have approved an EU-wide programme of DNA tests on beef products to assess the scale of a food scandal involving mislabelled horsemeat, the bloc's executive said on Friday.
"I welcome the swift approval by the member states of the plan I tabled two days ago and I call on them to keep up the pressure in their efforts to identify a clear picture and a sequence of events," the bloc's health chief Tonio Borg said in a statement.
The initial one-month testing plan will also check horsemeat for potentially harmful drug residues, after six horses slaughtered in the UK tested positive for the anti-inflammatory phenylbutazone, which is illegal in meat for human consumption. Initial results from the test are expected by mid-April.
(Reporting by Charlie Dunmore; editing by)
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