There’s horsemeat in them thar meatballs

Swedish retailer IKEA AB has stopped selling sausages in its 14 Russian stores after tests showed that sausages from its local supplier contained horsemeat, the company said on Thursday.

The world’s No. 1 furniture retailer, known also for the restaurants at its huge out-of-town stores, said that the tests confirmed the presence of horsemeat in sausages produced by meat processing company Remit.

Last month IKEA withdrew IKEA-branded wiener sausages produced by Familjen Dafgard from stores in a number of European countries and stopped nearly all sales of the same supplier’s meatballs across the region.

Those withdrawals did not affect meatballs in Russia and IKEA said on Thursday that tests revealed no horsemeat in meatballs being supplied to IKEA’s Russian stores by local producer PIT-Product, which is owned by Finnish group Atria .

A European scandal erupted in January when tests in Ireland revealed that some beef products also contained horsemeat, triggering recalls of ready meals in several countries and damaging confidence in Europe’s vast and complex food industry.

2013-03-09 17:00:07

Source: http://markosun.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/theres-horsemeat-in-them-thar-meatballs/