IKEA Pulls Meatballs, Sausages in Wake of Horsemeat Scandal

IKEA Group has reportedly withdrawn its trademark meatballs and sausages
from its European locations after testing revealed trace amounts of horsemeat
in the products. According to a February 28, 2013, press release, the company
identified horsemeat “in a few samples of our meatballs from a supplier in
Sweden” and has thus suspended sales of “all products containing minced
meat from pork and beef from that supplier.”

IKEA Group has since reiterated, however, that the recall does not implicate
products sold at its U.S. stores. “All meatballs sold in our IKEA US stores are
sourced from a U.S. supplier,” the company stated in a February 26 press
release. “Based on the results of our mapping, we can confirm that the
contents of the meatballs follow the IKEA recipe and contain only beef and
pork from animals raised in the U.S. and Canada.”

Meanwhile, the U.K. Food Standards Agency (FSA) has released the second
and third rounds of DNA testing initiated by the food industry in the wake of
the horsemeat scandal. According to these reports, 45 out of 5,430 tests have
indicated horse DNA “at or above the 1% thresholds,” resulting in the recall of
17 products to date. In addition, FSA has verified that no tests have thus far
revealed the presence of the veterinary medicine phenylbutazone (bute) in
any product.

“The FSA focus continues to be on gross contamination of beef products with
horse meat, that is, where there is more than 1% horse DNA detected in a
product,” conclude the reports. “The Agency believes that such levels of horse
DNA indicate either gross negligence or deliberate substitution of one meat
for another.”