As the horsemeat scandal marches on in Europe, implicating yet more food processors, the first arrests have been made in the UK.

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The scandal began in January when inspectors from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland uncovered contamination of beef-burgers and other processed beef products with traces of pig and horse, some at high volumes. Since that time suppliers and retailers across Europe have become embroiled in the fiasco and EU authorities have held meetings over the growing food crisis.

Catering supplier Rangelands Foods in the Republic of Ireland informed the FSAI on Thursday (14th February) that it had detected contamination of its beef burgers with horsemeat at concentrations of up to 30 percent. The UK Food Standards Authority confirmed that "Affected products have been distributed to UK caterers and wholesalers."

Also on Thursday, police arrested two men in Wales and one in West Yorkshire following raids on a slaughterhouse and meat processing plant. The men are thought to have been involved in passing off horse meat as beef. Dyfed-Powys Police stated that three people had been arrested on suspicion of offences under the Fraud Act.

The arrests serve to undermine the narrative adopted by the UK government and industry to explain the meat contamination scandal, which shows no sign of abating. Although authorities claimed the contamination could be traced back to mainland Europe, in particular France, Spain and Romania, the latest developments within the UK have dealt a hefty blow to these assertions.

Although officials had also previously warned that the presence of horsemeat in processed 'beef' products appearing on UK shelves raised the risk of contamination with phenylbutazone (bute), a horse drug banned in food production, the only evidence of bute contamination to date has been discovered in UK horsemeat destined for France.

Of the eight carcases that tested positive for the presence of bute between 31st January and 7th February, FSA said six had already been shipped to France. Shadow Environment Secretary Mary Creagh commented on the revelation, "People will be shocked that the UK continued exporting contaminated horse meat nearly three weeks after Labour first warned Ministers about bute. Ministers' catastrophic complacency allowed at least six bute contaminated horses to go off for human consumption in the middle of a horsemeat adulteration scandal."

Speaking on the BBC's Newsnight programme on Wednesday, Professor Tim Lang of the UK Centre for Food Policy suggested that the immediate response of blaming criminal gangs in Eastern and Southern Europe for the contamination is too "convenient". He said that, contrary to the "bad apple theory" of unscrupulous traders in other countries, evidence suggests that the scandal is the result of a "systemic failure, where some of the biggest, most powerful, highly capitalised and ruthless controlling companies in the food system have been found to be selling horsemeat" in violation of contracts.

He also sought to counter the industry argument that voluntary self-regulation and closer relationships between retailers would result in a safer, more transparent food system. He said, "This is about money, power and control; the Food Standards Agency inspectors have been slashed and cut. We can't have industry policing itself, that's what's gone wrong; the big food companies didn't actually have the power they said they had."

Although the government continues to blame criminal gangs for "defrauding the public" over meat contamination and argues the issue is a case of mislabelling, food policy experts maintain that the crisis is a "normal accident"; inevitable due to the nature of the food supply chain and moves towards self-regulation and corporate food governance.

Nevertheless, attempting to capitalise on the food scare, NFU has this week taken out advertisements promoting British agriculture in a number of national newspapers. As a result of public concern over the scandal and growing mistrust of large companies involved, farm shops and local butchers are recording massive increases in trade.