IKEA Greece also withdraws meatballs after horsemeat found in Czech Republic

All IKEA’s meatballs are produced in Sweden by supplier Familjen Dafgard, which said on its website it was investigating the situation and would receive further test results in the coming days.

Greek consumers are expecting an official announcement by the Food Control Authority (EOF).

On Monday, IKEA withdrew packages of  meatballs “Koettbullar” from the shelves of its stores in 13 countries after meatballs were found to contain traces of horsemeat in its stores in the Czech Republic.

The Czech State veterinary administration said that horse meat was found in one-kilogram packs of frozen meatballs made in Sweden and shipped to the Czech Republic for sale in Ikea stores there. A total of 760 kilograms of the meatballs were stopped from reaching the shelves.

Ikea spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson said meatballs from the same batch had gone out to Slovakia, Hungary, France, Britain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Ireland. Magnusson said meatballs from that batch were taken off the shelves in Ikea stores in all those countries. Other shipments of meatballs were not affected, she added.

Ikea  said it had taken the Czech result “seriously”.

The checks were carried out in response to a European-wide scandal that erupted last month when tests carried out in Ireland revealed some beef products also contained horsemeat.

An Ikea spokesman said: “Ikea takes the test result from the Czech Republic authorities showing indications of traces of horsemeat seriously. The concerned production batch of meatballs has been withdrawn from the Swedish Food Market in the Ikea stores.

Already two weeks ago, Ikea Group initiated DNA analyses of all meat products in the range.

“Twelve tested samples of different batches of meatballs showed no traces of horsemeat.”

Greek website Newsit.gr sent a reporter to IKEA in Athens who found no meatballs on sale.  To reporter’s question as to “why there were no meatballs,”, a shop official answered “There were no meatballs this week, there might be on sale again, next week.”

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