Horsemeat has been seized in raids on slaughterhouses in Ireland as part of a huge international operation targeting food fraud.

Live animals and more than 17t of horsemeat were seized from several slaughterhouses in Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

Inspections of the slaughterhouses found that about 20% of the foreign passports used for these horses showed signs of forgery.

 Competition horses with forged documents were also sent to slaughterhouses.

Europol supported national authorities in the clampdown on the “dangerous criminal trend” of illegal horsemeat, which was led by Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The raids were part of Opson 2020, a six-month operation by Europol and Interpol which targeted trafficking of counterfeit and substandard food and drink.