Britain has called for DNA testing of processed meat across the EU, as agriculture ministers met in Brussels to discuss the scandal of beef adulterated with horsemeat.

Arriving for the emergency summit, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson hinted investigations by UK food safety authorities may lead to further raids, following action at an abattoir in West Yorkshire and a Welsh processing plant.

Prime Minister David Cameron told the Commons that anyone involved in passing off horsemeat as beef should face "the full intervention of the law", but said there was no evidence products on the shelves of British shops were unsafe.

Mr Paterson said the raids, on the Peter Boddy slaughterhouse in Todmorden and meat processing plant Farmbox Meats at Llandre in Aberystwyth, followed work by the Food Standards Agency, tracing back through the paperwork of companies.

He added: "There may be more procedures coming forward but I don't want to prejudice those investigations."

The two plants were temporarily shut amid claims they supplied and used horse carcasses in burgers and kebabs.

FSA director of operations Andrew Rhodes said its probe had revealed "blatant misleading of consumers" and investigations would continue "until there is nothing left to find".

But solicitor Aled Owen, representing Farmbox, said the processing firm denied any wrong-doing. It had a legitimate business cutting horsemeat for delivery to Belgium.

Ahead of his meeting with counterparts from France, Ireland, Romania, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, Mr Paterson said it was now clear that meat contamination was a Europe-wide problem.

No-one had "a clue" until recently that beef products had been adulterated, said the Environment Secretary, adding that it had initially appeared to involve "very small amounts" of horsemeat.

But he said: "What changed the whole thing onto a completely different plane was the revelation from Luxembourg of significant amounts of horse. That has changed the whole argument."

Chancellor George Osborne also dodged questions over whether he would eat a spaghetti bolognese ready-meal as he campaigned in the Eastleigh by-election.

Shadow environment secretary Mary Creagh raised concerns over the presence in horsemeat of the painkiller bute, which can harm humans. She added: "It is not just the food industry that is losing faith with Owen Paterson, the Prime Minister is too."

:: OWNERS of a Glasgow sausage factory claim test results for the past two and a half years show there were no "non-declared" species in their products.

As reported in later editons of last night's Evening Times, the Freshlink site in Shettleston was the centre of a scare with its beef meatballs suspected of containing pork.

Waitrose bosses banned the sale of the batches and have severed all ties with the Irish owners of Freshlink.

But a spokeswoman from ABP, which owns the factory, said: "Freshlink has carried out more than 450 DNA tests. All results have been negative for non-declared species."