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Helen Dickinson, British Retail Consortium: "Retailers have not been reticent"
Downing Street has criticised the apparent reluctance of stores involved in selling affected products to comment publicly on the horsemeat crisis.
Sources at Number 10 have told the BBC that "it isn't acceptable for retailers to remain silent".
But vendors said they would speak out once the results of tests to determine the presence of horsemeat in processed meals were released.
The first results of those tests will be made public on Friday.
Key questionsDowning Street said some of the big supermarkets had questions to answer.
The Number 10 sources said "it isn't acceptable for retailers to remain silent while customers have been misled about the content of the food they have been buying".
They said those selling affected products should answer key questions such as how did the crisis arise, what inquiries have supermarkets made about their suppliers and how can any similar problems be avoided in the future.
Safety issues
- Experts say horsemeat is as safe to eat as beef
- The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has demanded food businesses to check for horsemeat in all processed beef products, such as burgers, meatballs and lasagne. The first set of results are expected on Friday
- There is concern that some horses are given a drug called bute (phenylbutazone) which can be dangerous to humans
- In rare cases it causes a serious blood disorder known as aplastic anaemia, where the body does not make enough new blood cells
- Animals treated with phenylbutazone are not allowed to enter the food chain for this reason
- The Food Standards Agency ordered Findus to test its beef lasagne that contains horsemeat for bute, but no traces were found
Last month, Irish food inspectors announced they had found horsemeat in some beefburgers made by firms in the Irish Republic and the UK, and sold by a number of UK supermarket chains including Tesco, Iceland, Aldi and Lidl.
Since then, a growing number of UK retailers have recalled processed beef products found to contain horse DNA.
And UK police investigating allegations that horsemeat was mislabelled as beef have arrested three men on suspicion of offences under the Fraud Act.
Two men, aged 64 and 42, were held at Farmbox Meats Ltd, near Aberystwyth, and a 63-year-old man was arrested at Peter Boddy Licensed Slaughterhouse, in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. Both firms have denied any wrongdoing.
The arrests came after the FSA said on Thursday that tests had found eight horses, killed in the UK, had tested positive for the equine painkiller bute and that six may have entered the food chain in France.
'Restore trust'BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said there was clearly frustration at the heart of government that while the actions of ministers have been scrutinised in the media, some of the the large traders have seemed more reluctant to make an appearance.
Helen Dickinson of the British Retail Consortium told BBC Radio 4's Today programme retailers had been focusing on the swift testing of their products.
She insisted stores had "absolutely been communicating with their customers" already and had quickly withdrawn affected products from the shelves.
"The retail industry absolutely appreciates the role that it has - the trust that consumers place in it every day - and we need to ensure that we continue to work hard to restore that," she said.
Ms Dickinson added the issue was evolving and lessons must be learned by "all parts of the food industry" in the UK and Europe.
Culture Secretary Maria Miller stepped up the criticism by saying retailers should not be "let off the hook" for putting wrongly labelled products on their shelves.
But Labour's Mary Creagh sought to shift the blame back onto the government, accusing ministers of being "asleep on the job".
Lab testsThe industry-wide tests, due to be released on Friday, were ordered by the Food Standards Agency after the revelation that quantities of horsemeat had entered some beef ready meals.
Samples of beef products have been examined in laboratories for traces of horse DNA as part of the tests, and food retailers said they would have results from about 30% of their product ranges.
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French meat processing firm Spanghero has been accused of selling horsemeat as beef
Retailers said getting through all their processed beef ranges could take several weeks.
Some shops have already recalled products they found to be contaminated - including Asda which withdrew a beef bolognese sauce on Thursday, the first fresh beef product to be involved.
Aldi, Tesco and Findus have also withdrawn some beef-based ready meals.
Conservative MP Anne McIntosh, chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, told BBC News retailers were "stepping up to the plate" to deal with the problem.
But she said: "What we want to do is boost confidence in the consumer... It is alarming that we still do not know at what point this contamination is entering into the food chain, either in this country or presumably more probably in the European Union."
Miss McIntosh added that "traceability" of food was vital and the system for frozen and processed foods should be as rigorous as it already was for fresh food.
Meanwhile, food safety experts from across Europe will meet in Brussels on Friday morning.
They will try to draw up detailed plans on how to conduct DNA testing of a large number of beef food products across much of the continent in the coming weeks.
The meeting is being held after the French government accused meat processing company Spanghero of knowingly selling horsemeat labelled as beef.
The firm has denied the allegations, saying it only ever dealt in meat it believed to be beef.
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French food producer makes order
Comigel HQ in Metz, north-east France, asks its subsidiary, Tavola in Luxembourg, to make food products - including beef lasagne for Findus.
Factory orders meat
The Tavola factory orders the meat from Spanghero in the south of France.
Subcontractor used
Spanghero contacts a subcontractor in Cyprus to source the meat.
Subcontractor enlists trader
The Cypriot subcontractor in turn contacts a trader in the Netherlands.
Trader orders from Romania
The trader in the Netherlands places an order for meat with abattoirs in Romania.
Abattoirs send meat to France
The meat from the abattoirs travels to Spanghero in France. However, Romania rejects claims that it was responsible for wrongly describing the horsemeat from its abattoirs as beef. Horsemeat is always labelled as such, they say. The Romanian authorities claim records show orders had been for horse carcass - easily distinguishable from beef.
Meat used to make products
Spanghero sends the meat to the Comigel subsidiary's factory in Luxembourg before the finished products are supplied to Findus and retailers across Europe, including the UK. The president of Comigel says the company was unaware the meat was coming from abroad.
Horsemeat found in Ireland and UK
Tests by Irish authorities have found equine DNA in beefburgers made by firms in the Irish Republic and the UK. Traces of horsemeat have also been found in stored meat at another plant in Ireland and one in Northern Ireland. In mainland Britain, police and officials probing alleged horsemeat mislabelling have carried out raids at a slaughterhouse in West Yorkshire and a meat firm near Aberystwyth.
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