021229 French Meat Chain Illegally Imported British Beef

Paris - French prosecutors suspect steak house chain Buffalo Grill of breaking an embargo on imports of British beef imposed to prevent the spread of mad cow disease, judicial officials said.

The French company's chief executive, Christian Picard, was among four people questioned by investigators over suspicions the restaurant served British beef until 2000 -- four years after the government first banned the meat — the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The four were detained as part of wider investigation opened two years ago into the sources of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a fatal brain-wasting disease linked to the consumption of contaminated beef. At least four people have died of the disease in France.

The judicial officials said two executives of Distrigroupe, a subsidiary of Buffalo Grill that supplies the chain's meat, will likely be placed under investigation — one step short of formal charges -- in connection with the probe. Their identities were not revealed.

Officials at Buffalo Grill were not immediately available for comment.

The European Union banned imports of British beef in 1996 after the first cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, were identified.

The same year, the British government acknowledged a link between the cattle ailment and the similar brain-wasting disease in humans.

France agreed to lift the ban in October following the recommendation of its food safety agency that British beef was free of the disease and safe to eat.

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