A man who has previously served a prison term for meat trafficking is being blamed for the horse meat scandal in France.

It has emerged Dutch and Cypriot meat companies owned by the same man distributed horse meat throughout France and Luxembourg where it was made into frozen burgers and lasagnes.

The French government says there was a litany of failures at every level.

France's Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll said the government was considering withdrawing the operating license of the firm involved.

The investigation found the company had generated a profit of €550,000 over 6 months by selling cheap horsemeat as beef, Consumer Affairs Minister Benoit Hamon said.

It has criticised processors for not being more suspicious, as the product which came from Romania was so cheap and would have been a different colour to beef.

'A clear case of fraud'

It comes as the European Commission announced it is introducing random DNA testing on processed meats.

The Commission will contribute half of the estimated €3 million of costs.

The European Law enforcement agency Europol is also to coordinate a criminal investigation into the horse meat scandal across several countries.

The moves form part of a series of recommendations put forward after Agriculture Ministers from 8 of the EU countries implicated in the scandal met in Brussels yesterday.

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney says it is a clear case of fraud.