As the scandal over the discovery of horse meat in products labeled as pure beef widened, the European Union's health chief vowed Wednesday to put in place a plan to restore consumer confidence.

"The issue before us today is therefore overwhelmingly one of fraudulent labeling rather than one of safety," Tonio Borg said in a statement after an emergency meeting in Belgium with authorities from France, Romania, Holland, Luxembourg and Britain.

He noted that EU legislation allows horse meat to be used for the production of minced meat and meat preparations, "however, it has to be declared on the label."

It is the responsibility of EU member states to check on whether a product presents a risk and complies with the law, Borg said.

In the case of horse meat, the commission has checked on whether member states have complied with requirements about hygiene and residues of veterinary drugs, he said.

"Analyses are under way to identify the possible presence of residues of veterinary drugs, especially where unlabeled horse meat has been found," he said.

A meeting of the Standing Committee of the Food Chain and Animal Health is scheduled for Friday, he said.

"This meeting will provide a forum to ascertain the precise state-of-play of the ongoing investigations in the member states, and enable discussions on a possible coordinated response," he said.

The commission will recommend to the standing committee a plan that will include widespread testing "to restore the confidence of all European consumers," he said.

The plan "should be communicated by member states by 15 April," he said.

The plan will recommend that member states ensure that "any misleading labeling practices" be identified, and will ask, "as a preventive measure," that member states ensure that any residues of the veterinary drug phenylbutazone be identified in establishments handling raw horse meat "so as to unearth any related safety concern."

The member states should then report their findings back to the commission, he said.

The talks in Brussels came a day after British police and health officials raided a slaughterhouse and meat company as part of the investigation into how horse meat ended up in products identified as beef.

The slaughterhouse, in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, is believed to have supplied horse carcasses to Farmbox Meats Ltd., a Welsh firm that then sold the meat as beef for kebabs and burgers.

Authorities have suspended operations at both facilities and seized all remaining meat and company files, which include a client list. Neither company was immediately available for comment.

"I ordered an audit of all horse-producing abattoirs in the UK after this issue first arose last month and I was shocked to uncover what appears to be a blatant misleading of consumers," Andrew Rhodes, Food Standards Agency director of operations, said Tuesday.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson called the revelations "absolutely shocking."

"It's totally unacceptable if any business in the UK is defrauding the public by passing off horse meat as beef," he said. "I expect the full force of the law to be brought down on anyone involved in this kind of activity."

In a written statement to parliament, Paterson said Wednesday that both the raided businesses had a legitimate trade in horse meat, "but investigations so far indicate that horse meat has been used in UK produce as though it is beef."

Horse meat was discovered in products that are supposed to be 100% beef sold in Sweden, the United Kingdom and France.