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HORSEMEAT SCANDAL

IKEA

Now on sale at Ikea: horse-free meatballs

Swedish meatballs are once again being sold at Ikea, with the Swedish furniture giant promising customers its version of the classic Swedish dish is now free of horsemeat.

Published: 21 March 2013 10:11 CET

Now on sale at Ikea: horse-free meatballs

“From now on we are doing DNA-tests on all meat at three different levels. At delivery, under production, and when the meatballs are finished. The number of suppliers has shrunk from 15 to seven,” Ikea Foods CEO Edward Mohr told the TT news agency on Thursday.

Mohr added that the new meat in Ikea’s Swedish meatballs currently comes only from Germany, but that Sweden and Ireland will soon serve as supplying countries as well.

The news comes three weeks after Ikea banned the sale of meatballs in stores across Europe after tests in the Czech Republic found traces of horsemeat in the Swedish retailer’s meatballs.

The findings were later confirmed by tests carried out in Sweden by Ikea meatball supplier Gunnar Dafgård AB.

Mohr refused to divulge the amount of horse-tainted meatballs Ikea still had in stock, saying only it was “quite a lot”.

SEE ALSO: Faecal bacteria found in Ikea chocolate cakes

When asked what Ikea planned to do with the horse meatballs, he explained the company is looking into whether it can follow in the footsteps of Swedish foodmaker Axfood, which announced earlier this week it was donating five tonnes of horsemeat-tainted frozen lasagne to help feed Stockholm’s homeless.

“We need to see how it would work from a legal and regulatory perspective,” Mohr told TT.

He added he would “absolutely” eat Ikea Swedish meatballs with or without horsemeat.

“I love them. It’s important to remember that there wasn’t anything wrong with the actual product, but rather that they were improperly labelled,” said Mohr.

SEE ALSO: ‘You can’t butcher a family member’

Mohr admitted Ikea “hadn’t lived up to customers’ expectations” by selling meatballs containing horsemeat.

It remains unclear what Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad thinks about the episode.

“To be honest, I don’t know. I haven’t spoken with him,” Mohr said.

TT/The Local/dl

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A file photo at Ikea in Aalborg, where 31 people stayed overnight during a snowstorm on December 1st 2021.

A file photo at Ikea in Aalborg, where 31 people stayed overnight during a snowstorm on December 1st 2021. Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

Anyone who has found themselves wandering the mazy aisles of an Ikea might be able to empathise with the sense of being lost in the furniture store for a seemingly indefinite time.

Such a feeling was probably more real than usual for six customers and 25 staff members who were forced to spend the night at the furniture giant’s Aalborg branch after being snowed in.

Heavy snow in North Jutland brought traffic to a standstill and halted public transport in parts of the region on Wednesday afternoon, resulting in a snow-in at Ikea.

“This is certainly a new situation for us,” Ikea Aalborg store manager Peter Elmose told local media Nordjyske, which first reported the story.

“It’s certainly not how I thought my day would end when I drove to work this morning,” Elmose added.

The 31 people gathered in the store’s restaurant area and planned to see Christmas television and football to pass the evening, the store’s manager reported to Nordjyske.

“Our kitchen staff have made sure there is hot chocolate, risalamande, pastries, soft drinks, coffee and the odd beer for us in light of the occasion. So we’ll be able to keep warm,” he said.

“We couldn’t just send them outside and lock the door behind them at our 8pm closing time. Absolutely not. So of course they’ll be staying here,” he added.

The temporary guests were given lodging in different departments of the store in view of the Covid-19 situation, Nordjyske writes.

“For us , the most important thing was to take care of each other and that everyone feels safe,” Elmose said.

At least Ikea’s stranded customers and staff had somewhere comfortable to lay their heads.

The same can unlikely be said for around 300 passengers at the city’s airport who had to stay overnight at the terminal.

The airport was forced to stop flights from 2:30pm yesterday amid worsening weather, which also prevented buses from transferring passengers to hotels.

“We have around 300 people in the terminal right now and have been giving out blankets on the assumption they will be staying here tonight,” Aalborg Airport operations manager Kim Bermann told Nordjyske.

READ ALSO: Ikea reopens in Denmark after country’s worst retail month this century

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