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Ikea Finds Horse In Its Meatballs (In Europe)
By
Garth Johnston
Published Feb 25, 2013
Modified Feb 25, 2013
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Feb 25, 2013
Modified Feb 25, 2013
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Vegetarians, maybe you have the right idea? Thanks to constant hiccups in the modern marvel that is the farming-industrial complex, we've grown increasingly immune to concerns about mislabeled foods. Tons of fraudulent fish haven't gotten us to stop eating sushi. But the increasingly metastasizing European horse meat scandal—in which meat products on the continent have been found to include unlabeled horse meat—has reached the point where we can no longer ignore it. It has hit Ikea. Neigh!
Yes, the Swedish shopping center that brings millions joy in the form of budget decor and occasional monkeys has announced that it has recalled its famous meatballs in 13 European countries after horse meat was detected in them. Specifically its frozen meatballs, not the ones served in the store's famous cafeterias. Speaking of Ikea's meatballs, did you know that the company actually makes five percent of its sales from food? $1.72 billion in sales a year. That's a lot of meatballs!
Ikea's horsey surprise was discovered by a Czech food regulator. IKEA spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson says sales of the affected batches of frozen meatballs, marketed as Koettbullar, have been pulled from all countries to which they were distributed: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, France, the U.K., Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Ireland. So U.S. meatballs appear safe, for now. Still, having eaten mammals from rats to horses we promise the latter really doesn't taste too bad!
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Europe
fraudulent meat
horse
horsemeat
ikea
Garth Johnston
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