Findus knew of potential meat problem days before lasagne withdrawal Testing has revealed that some Findus beef lasagne ready meals may have contained up to 100% horsemeat. Findus knew there was a potential problem with its lasagnes, in which up to 100% of the meat was later found to have come from horses, two days before the products were withdrawn, the company has said. Findus also said it was looking into claims by the Labour MP Tom Watson that meat used by Comigel, the French supplier that makes the lasagnes, may have been suspect since August last year. Speaking after the Food Standards Agency ordered all British companies to test their processed beef products within the next week, a Findus spokesman said the company was told late on Saturday by Comigel that there was a potential problem with the provenance of the meat. While Findus immediately ordered tests on the meat in Germany it did not instruct shops to remove the products from shelves until Monday. The spokesman said: "It was mainly a question of logistics, because of the weekend." When the Findus tests came back on Wednesday it was confirmed that some of what was supposed to be beef was in fact horse. The FSA then tested 18 Findus lasagne dishes and found 11 of them contained between 60% and 100% horsemeat. In a statement on its website, the agency described the issue but said it was not advising people to stop buying any products containing frozen meat. Watson used his personal blog to publish what he said was an extract of a letter Findus sent retailers on Monday, which said Comigel could not guarantee the provenance of meat in products since the start of August 2012. The Findus spokesman said the company had no immediate comment on this. A total of 180,000 lasagnes in 320g, 360g and 500g sizes were withdrawn from shops after Comigel warned they did not "conform to specification." In a separate statement, Findus apologised to customers over the horsemeat contamination. Explaining what it believed had happened, the company said: "We understand those concerns, we are sorry that we have let people down and we want to outline the facts." Other Findus products had been tested and were not affected, it said. A Downing Street spokeswoman described the contamination as "distasteful," saying it seemed likely the contamination involved criminality, which was being investigated by police in the UK and abroad. The Metropolitan police said its officers were not involved and the FSA was not immediately able to say from which force the UK police came. The environment secretary, Owen Paterson, said the situation was completely unacceptable, and the government was working closely with businesses to "root out any illegal activity." "Consumers can be confident that we will take whatever action we consider necessary if we discover evidence of criminality or negligence," he said. The FSA has given food suppliers until 15 February to test their processed beef products. The agency's chief executive, Catherine Brown, described the situation as appalling and said it seemed likely to have happened through deliberate fraud or other criminal activity, rather than mistaken contamination. Anyone who had bought one of the Findus products should not eat it but return it to the shop where it was bought, the agency said. The shadow environment secretary, Mary Creagh, said she would not eat any processed beef products currently on sale. She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We've had 10m beefburgers withdrawn. Other Comigel-made products withdrawn were the frozen beef lasagne and frozen spaghetti bolognese from Aldi's Today's Special range. Tesco also decided to withdraw its Everyday Value spaghetti bolognese, which was made at the same Comigel site, although there was no evidence of contamination. Supermarkets said they had no immediate plans to remove any other processed beef dishes but would closely monitor the situation. A Morrisons spokeswoman said: "We're looking at what other Findus products we sell. We'll be guided by the producers as to whether we need to remove anything else from the shelves. A spokesman for Asda said the company sold one of the Findus lasagne products, which was removed on Monday: "We're closely monitoring the situation and working with the FSA. It seems to be becoming a bigger industry issue.