Furniture company stops sales of meatballs in more than 20 European countries after batch tests positive for horse DNA
Ikea has begun withdrawing all meatballs from sale in stores in the UK and more than 20 other European countries after tests by authorities in the Czech Republic found traces of horsemeat in its Kottbullar line.
The Scandinavian company had originally cleared UK shelves in its Swedish Food Market section of products from the same batch as samples that tested positive from the company store in the Czech city of Brno. The decision to withdraw that batch affected 13 countries in all as the furniture store became the latest to be caught up in the horsemeat scandal.
But days after restocking, Ikea on Monday called a wider halt to sales of any meatballs from its so-far-unnamed Swedish supplier, a precautionary move that now applies to all European countries except for Norway, Russia and a limited number of products in Switzerland and Poland. The company said it expected test results at the end of the week to confirm that there were no indications of horsemeat in the meatballs.
"We take seriously the test result from the Czech Republic authorities, indicating presence of horsemeat in one batch of our meatballs," said Anders Lennartsson, of Ikea food services. "The trust of our customers is of outmost importance which is why the concerned production batch of meatballs was immediately withdrawn and we are now taking this extra precautionary measure."
Ikea was told of the horsemeat discovery by authorities in the Czech Republic last week and refilled its UK shelves with new stock on Friday, although the country's State Veterinary Administration only announced on Monday that it had found evidence of horse during DNA tests on products labelled as beef and pork meatballs from Ikea in the city of Brno. The consignment had not been distributed to consumers, the government body said.
Ikea said it had started its own in-house DNA analyses of all meat products in the range two weeks ago. Twelve tested samples of different batches of meatballs had shown no traces of horsemeat.
It said it would not tolerate any other ingredients than the ones stipulated in its recipes or product specifications.
The company operates in 26 European countries and 44 in all, with annual sales of £23.6bn.
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