Australia orders inquiry on scam in beef exports

Australia has set up a royal commission to investigate the scandal over horse and kangaroo meat being exported as beef. The scandal came to light when a US Agriculture Department inspector found horsemeat in a carton imported from Australia as boneless beef. The US accounts for about 60 percent of Australia's meat exports.

Officials are exmining allegations in a magazine that substituting horse and kangaroo meat was a long-established practice aided by bureaucratic inefficiency and possibly by corruption. One meat exporter has been arrested and charged with forging official export documents and an inspection stamp.