Horse meat found in Ikea's Swedish meatballs

STOCKHOLM (KABC) -- Furniture giant Ikea is stopping sales of its meatballs in 21 European countries after Czech inspectors found horse meat in the frozen food.

The company says it did not find any traces of the meat during its own tests, but Ikea recalled the suspicious meatball batch out of precaution.

Ikea is the latest company caught up in the Europe-wide scandal over horse meat. It began in Ireland last month when inspectors found horse meat in some products labeled as beef.

The incident does not affect Ikea meatballs in the United States.

"Our global recommendation is to not recall or stop selling meatballs," Ikea spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson said.

Magnusson said all of the meatballs are supplied by Gunnar Dafgard AB, a family-owned frozen foods company in southwestern Sweden. Calls to the company were not immediately returned.

The Czech authority also announced Monday that it found horse meat in beef burgers imported from Poland during random tests of food products.

European Union officials are scheduled to meet Monday to discuss tougher food labeling rules.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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