Furniture giant Ikea has withdrawn a batch of its traditional meatballs from sale in its UK stores after horse meat was discovered by Czech authorities. The Swedish company said meatballs would still be available to buy in its stores and only one batch was being withdrawn as a precaution until further tests on it could be done. A spokesman said internal tests had shown no problems up to now. He said in a statement: "Ikea takes the test result from the Czech Republic authorities showing indications of traces of horse meat seriously. The concerned production batch of meatballs has been withdrawn from the Swedish Food Market in the Ikea stores. "Already two weeks ago, Ikea Group initiated DNA analyses of all meat products in the range. Twelve tested samples of different batches of meatballs showed no traces of horse meat. To validate the test results, we are now initiating further tests on the same production batch in which the Czech Republic authorities found indications of horse meat." A spokesman said they were expecting test results in the coming days and will then be able to give more information. He said: "Ikea is committed to serving and selling high quality food that is safe, healthy and produced with care for the environment and the people who produce it. 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 firm said it had issued "a sales stop" of the concerned batch in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, France, Portugal, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Ireland as well as the UK. The meatballs were labelled as beef and pork and were in one-kilogram frozen packs sent to the Czech Republic for sale in Ikea stores there. The Czech Republic's state veterinary administration found traces of horse meat as part of its testing programme. A total of 760 kilos (1,675lbs) of the meatballs were stopped from reaching the shelves. The spokesman said the move did not affect the supply of meatballs to Ikea restaurants in the UK. | 
