IKEA May Put Horse Meatballs Back On Sale In Sweden

IKEA is considering putting its horse meatballs back on the market in Swedish stores and is claiming there is no health risk associated with eating them, Agence France-Presse reported Tuesday.

"We are looking at ways of using the meatballs as food, since they are completely safe to eat. But we are still in talks with the authorities over this," IKEA spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson said, according to AFP.

The company said on Saturday that it might re-label the meatballs, sell them at a discounted price and donate the money to charity, The Independent reported.

In February, IKEA found itself embroiled in a controversy over mislabeled horse meat. The furniture retail giant announced a recall of its signature meatballs from over a dozen countries throughout Europe and the U.K. after Czech officials found some meatballs contained horse meat.

IKEA discovered that its main meatball supplier, Familjen Dafgard, had bought meat from a Swedish company that had, in turn, purchased horse meat from a Polish slaughterhouse. IKEA promptly filed a police report against the slaughterhouse, but a spokesman for Familjen Dafgard said the company didn't know "where in the chain the crime had been committed," according to English-language Swedish news site The Local.

In March IKEA said it had started DNA testing to make sure its meat is what it claims to be. The company also said it had forced Familjen Dafgard to drop over half of its fifteen meat suppliers, including the one that bought the horse meat from Poland, according to Reuters.

IKEA did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

(Hat tip, The Local)