I’m not so sure in my knowing that this horse meat scandal, which started in Ireland, won’t find its way onto our plates in the U.S. since we are so reliant on foreign born foods. The Czech Republic, yes the Czech Republic did some testing on IKEA’s frozen meatballs and found horse meat. I have never had the “meatballs” but whenever I’m shopping at the College Park IKEA, the aroma of “meatballs” is in the air. It’s time to get to busting open some bags and looking under a microscope to verify if the ingredients match up with what is listed.
The New York Times reported:
“The escalating crisis over horse meat in beef products in Europe claimed another big retail victim Monday when the Swedish furniture giant, Ikea, withdrew meatballs from sale in 14 European countries. The retailer said it had removed some products from its stores in Sweden after the authorities in the Czech Republic detected horse meat in Ikea meatballs. The company said it had made the decision even though its own tests two weeks ago had not detected horse DNA. Ikea also announced that it was stopping sales “of the concerned batch” of meatballs in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, France, Britain, Portugal, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Ireland.“We are now initiating further tests on the same production batch in which the Czech Republic authorities found indications of horse meat,” Ikea added in a statement. It said results were expected in the coming days. “We do not tolerate any other ingredients than the ones stipulated in our recipes or specifications, secured through set standards, certifications and product analysis by accredited laboratories,” the statement said. A traditional part of Swedish cuisine, meatballs are consumed in large quantities by customers in Ikea’s in-store cafeterias, and are also offered, frozen, for sale in Ikea’s in-store food shops for customers to take home. The discovery came as European Union ministers were meeting in Brussels to discuss how to contain a crisis that began last month in Ireland, spread quickly to Britain, and has now expanded steadily across the Continent.