"Thousands of West Germans have unwittingly eaten kangaroo and donkey meat in the past two years, thanks to a $A2.4 million swindle in which 1.6 million kilograms of the meats were sold off as beef, veal and pork," the report read.

"The swindle - which has led to 15 arrests - came to light in March last year, according to officials in Mainz who disclosed the nationwide switch last week.

"Meat inspectors found several tons of bad frozen meat in a north German sausage factory. Anxious to protect consumers of every German's favourite food, they investigated and traced the meat back to a Hamburg meat firm.

"According to reports in the West German media yesterday, dealers distributed one million kilograms of donkey and horse meat as beef and pork and sold 250,000 kilograms of kangaroo meat from Australia as beef.

"The Australian Minister for Primary Industry, Mr Nixon, said yesterday that the reports of kangaroo meat being sold in West Germany as beef were totally unrelated to Australia's export meat inspection system and there had been no substitution in Australia of kangaroo meat for other products for the West German market."

See: trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/12855294