Berlin, Oct. 24 (AFP): European Union and German officials have uncovered a massive fraud in the international food trade involving potentially contaminated buffalo meat from India, German news weekly Der Spiegel said.

The magazine said 45 containers of buffalo meat from India had been seized recently in Hamburg alone. The meat is considered nearly impossible to sell internationally because of the prevalence of foot-and-mouth disease in the country, Der Spiegel said.

Inspections showed that labels and health certificates for the shipment bound for Russia had been faked to say the meat was from Australia or Brazil.