IKEA Horse Meat Scandal, Swedish Company's Ubiquitous Meatballs May Contain Horse Meat

IKEA, everyone's favorite furniture store/labyrinth, is the latest European company to become ensnared in the growing horse meat scandal.

The labeling scandal has swept across the UK, Italy and Spain after many frozen food products sold in supermarkets were found to contain high percentages of horse DNA (sometimes as much as 100%, aka "You're eating straight-up horse meat") in spite of being labeled as beef. Brands such as Nestle and Findus have been forced to recall their products due to testing that found substantial amounts of equine muscle.

As for IKEA, a batch of their famous Kottbullar meatballs (that was to be shipped to Slovakia, Hungary, France, Britain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Italy Cyprus and Ireland; breathe easy, Kansas) tested positive for Mr. Ed byproducts in a test by the Czech State Veterinary Association.

IKEA spokespeople assured people that the offending batch has been removed from shelves and that shipments to other countries were not affected.

"Our global recommendation is to not recall or stop selling meatballs," IKEA spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson said in an interview with the Associated Press.

IKEA representatives said they take the Czech authority's results seriously, but nonetheless are performing their own investigation.

The horse-meat meatballs were supplied by Swedish frozen food company Gunnar Dafgard AB. Swedish authorities are awaiting exact percentages of horse meat detected before taking any action.

If it's less than 1 percent it could mean that they handled horsemeat at the same facility. If it's more, we assess that it's been mixed into the product," said Karin Cerenius of Sweden's National Food Agency to AP.