Health minister Edith Schippers and junior economic affairs minister Sharon Dijksma failed to warn the public about the potential danger attached to eating horse meat from Romania and Bulgaria, the AD reports on Wednesday.

The paper says the ministers ignored recommendations from food safety inspectors, who were concerned about the parasites in meat imported from both countries. The AD bases its claims on documents obtained using freedom of information legislation.

The warning was issued by the inspectorate at the beginning of this year. Horse meat from Bulgaria and Romania was more likely to contain dangerous parasites which formed a risk to health if the meat was not properly cooked, the paper said.

The AD says ministers decided there was no need to warn the public because the advice to thoroughly cook the meat was common knowledge.