Earlier today, the Swedish government advised that IKEA had been selling its Swedish meatballs in 13 different countries and labeled them as containing beef and pork. Apparently there was also horse meat in the meatballs too. There is so much widespread horse meat fixing going on but there has not been one peep anywhere in North America about any horse meat. Do you think there is horse meat in beef products here? You would think so just because of the fact that it seems to be in every beef and pork product in Europe. I wonder if individuals are out there testing products. If any is found, the offending company will have a tough time getting back its reputation.
I never liked those meatballs.
ReplyDeleteGross!!!
ReplyDeleteNever been to Ikea - thought they only sold furniture.
ReplyDeleteHold up, they sell food too?
ReplyDelete@SusanB and @LottaColada -- Every IKEA I've been to has a full-service cafeteria. I've never been happier to say I ate the chicken. :)
ReplyDeleteWho the hell buys premade meatballs anyway??? You deserve what you get!!! *L*
ReplyDeleteIn Sweden, horse meat is actually a pretty common sandwich meat, but it is labelled as such.
They have a cafeteria, and you can purchase stuff to make some of the items i.e. the Swedish meatballs. They also have various snacky things, but not a full on grocery store.
ReplyDeleteBuy local so you know what you're getting, kids.
They give you free food w/ $100 purchase, I think.
ReplyDeleteAs a Swede living abroad, the food shop at IKEA has saved many a Christmas for me.
ReplyDeleteStill. You couldn't pay me to eat premade meatballs.
All the IKEAs I've been to have a little cafeteria style restaurant that sells Swedish food, and the one here has a little grocery store type place in front of the store, where they also sell hot dogs, soda, ice cream, etc.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't care as long as it still tastes good. They should label it correctly at least. I don't see what the big deal is about horse meat. We eat so much bad crap everyday. I'd rather eat Mr. Ed than some processed plastic "food."
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I have only had salads there! The meatballs are very popular at IKEA.
ReplyDeleteAmber,I second that motion!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there's horse meat out there, as well as cat and dog.
ReplyDeleteOh, and IKEA is a great place to meet ladies!
"Horse meat disguised as meat"
ReplyDeleteOk. I'm all for accurate labeling in the food industry. People have a right to know what they eating.
But, horse meat IS meat. Just because we have cultural norms dictating some ungulates as a a food source and others not, it doesn't make it any less edible.
Um, lasagna from Sweden was one of the biggest horse-meat mislabeling stories last week. Poor Romania. They label the meat properly, and evil Swedes destroy their reputation!
ReplyDelete@LottaColada - my local Ikea (in Scotland) has a self-serve cafe, a takeaway counter, a Swedish deli and a selection of weird biscuits and sweets at the tills. We like to play WTF-kind-of-food-is-this roulette at the checkout - I know, I need to get out more, and not to Ikea...
ReplyDeleteI don't get this scandal. It's meat , it's perfectly ok to eat . It's not going to kill you.
ReplyDelete*thinks about frozen premade meatballs in freezer at home*
ReplyDeleteNOT from IKEA and just $2.00, but should I get rid of them?
*ponders*
Nah. I eat hot dogs, and Heaven only knows what are in THOSE things. My meatballs are safe! Neigh, neigh!
I don't know about you but I have become a label reader, I always was to a point but now any meat fish or fowl that comes into this house gets double checked...
ReplyDeleteGround beef...Whole Food no pink slime..
I used to buy more at Costco but as per their labels the meat could come from any one of 5 different countries...
Use to love T'J's tri-tip, it used to come from Colorado now it comes from New Zealand...I don't know what they do the the meat in the shipping and packing process but it's awful.
So just the simple pleasure of eating is being hijacked by greed.....
some of the rarest and very expensive salamis are made of horse meat.
ReplyDeletethe thing here is that this meat is probably the "old horse" meat. but in that quantities - does not matter.
just a matter of time until some will discover a new allergy...
Wow. I had no idea. The closest IKea to me is about two hours away so I've never been in one.
ReplyDeleteIf it doesn't make you sick guess it is ok. It should be labeled correctly. A local Chinese was busted for serving cat. It was my favorite buffet and I ate there at least once a week. Thought of it makes me sick. There is no telling what we eat when we go to restaurants--especially if it is local. Who knows how much of the meat we buy at the grocery store is tested. With the economy so bad and prices at the grocery store and gas going up it probably happens more often.
ReplyDeleteI don't object to eating horse, and have in the past, but I object to horse meat getting into the food chain which was not bred for human consumption, and may have been administered a variety of drugs that are not suitable for humans.
ReplyDeleteOr to quote off twitter..."Ikea have found horse meat in their Swedish meatballs. One would've been more shocked if they found wood in their furniture."
I try to buy local, organic, hormone/antibiotic/cruelty-free foods as much as possible. It is more expensive, but I like to know what I'm putting into my body, and I like supporting local farmers and businesses.
ReplyDeleteCount me as another who didn't know Ikea had food. mislabeling has gotten out of hand I hope they do extensiveness testing here!
ReplyDeleteI love those Meatballs! Waaahhhh!
ReplyDeleteI've been an IKEA shopper for almost 20 yrs and I love that store. I like the design elements and when you have a tiny city apartment no one else comes close.
ReplyDeleteI would always have me some meatballs after a long day of shopping.
NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! I've had the Swedish meatballs from there before. I hope the US isn't one of the countries.
ReplyDeleteA govt scientist in the UK (not that we should believe them) addressed the contaminated horse meat issue about bute by stating that an adult would need to eat about 600 horse burgers a day to ingest enough phenylbutazone to be at risk.
ReplyDeleteOf course immediately post-war, horse meat was sold everywhere in UK. But I agree that there is an inherent trust issue with labeling that needs to be addressed.
Still, we in the UK are also panicking at the thought of all these Romanians invading us next year when their membership of the EU allows it. Although given we're eating all their transport, I don't see the problem.
@FSP, now I'm just imagining you trolling the IKEA floors trying to pick up women. "Need help putting that bed together?"
ReplyDeleteYou know it Karen!
Delete@crila16, no, just Europe.
ReplyDeleteAuthorities in the Czech Republic said they detected horse meat in Ikea meatballs. However,
IKEA's own tests did not detect horse DNA. Ikea announced that it was stopping sales “of the concerned batch” of meatballs.
Ikea statement: “We are now initiating further tests on the same production batch in which the Czech Republic authorities found indications of horse meat,” Ikea added in a statement. It said results are expected in the coming days.
If you're looking for good pre-made meatballs, check out Trader Joe's. I love their turkey ones, but I'm sure their other ones are great too!
ReplyDeletei just dont think I care for horse meat, but appropo of all these revelations, I have probably eaten it and I didnt even know! a person does have a right to know what t hey are eating. and tahe meatbaalls at Ikea? you get like 5, maybe as big as a dime! not very filling, lol
ReplyDeleteI know horse meat is eaten and prepared as a delicacy in some countries, but all of the labels should say what it has in them.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many horses going to feed lots right now, and some do have heavy drugs in their systems.
I would never eat horse meat the thought of it grosses me out. The only meat I do eat once in a while is pork...and that's because we had a very mean pig growing up.... so one of my sons says, " so you're punishing that pig everytime you eat pork" and my pat answer is " yes..yes I am", lol. My family eats meat and I will prepare it for them.
i kinda get the outrage...but i kinda don't. in my native country, horse isn't bred for consumption, but it is often rec'd for the ill (ie: anemics, et al), b/c of the high content of iron, omega 3s and b12. it's double that of the leanest beef.
ReplyDelete...and ftr, i love ikea meatballs! but truly, i just need to sit down b/c i don't exactly have a discerning palate. i'm a non-foodie of highly mediocre cooking ability ilk, so yeah...i'll shut up now.
Friends of mine worked at Sonic and would accidentally drop hamburgers on the floor and then proceed to cook and serve them. I know some would also stir mosquitoes into the chili if they flew too close to the open pan. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't want to know what's in the "safe" food we are eating. So while horse meat isn't my idea of appetizing, I suspect I've eaten worse and not known.
ReplyDeleteanyone else reminded of the dog food scandal episode of Mad Men where the woman is upset because people are boycotting her dog food for having horse meat?
ReplyDeleteI remember buying horse meat dog food for my dog back in the '80s. It was my dog's favorite treat. Was always sad when people went"ewww horse meat" crazy and I could not get any for later dogs.
DeleteI don't get the outrage either. what is the difference between eating cow,chicken, dog or horse? I don't eat any of it because the thought of eating another being is gross.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad I'm a vegetarian!
ReplyDeleteAs long as there are no dead humans in the water, I am ok.
ReplyDeleteGross! When I go to Ikea we usually eat at the cafeteria and I get the meatballs.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to buy them prepackaged or frozen. It's no different than ordering spaghetti with meatballs so I don't see how anyone deserves to have mislabeled food.
Horse meat may be edible but that doesn't mean everyone is open to eating it. Most people don't eat what animals they have for pets or interact with yet in other countries it's normal to eat dog meat.
It just comes down to selling something under the wrong label which is unethical and probably illegal depending on the country.
when the horse meat thing started a couple of weeks ago, i read an artcle that said it would be nearly impossible for the US meat industry not to be contaminated the same way. meat plants in the US commonly blend meat from MANY different sources. ts just a matter of time before this comes to light here.
ReplyDeleteYeah, IKEA has a little supermarket near the exit. It's great for buying lingonberries, (sadly, no longer any cloudberries) cookies, coffee, mustard and vinegar, tins of fish, frozen stuff. Like Maja said, it'll save you when you really need foods from Sweden and near to there.
ReplyDeleteThe USDA has zero power to test most the meat we eat here in the US. Besides being horribly short staffed the meat producers fight them every step of the way. If you get e coli from contaminated meat they don't even have to say where it came from. The producer(s) actually gets anonymity! And they can blend meat from any number of sources. That hamburger at the grocery store could be from the US, New Zealand, South America, you name it.
ReplyDeleteOur food safety system here in the US is quite broken. Makes me glad I don't eat it but I feel guilty for serving it to family. I do shop at a local store and try to buy from a respected producer (Diestal farms poultry, Niman Ranch for beef) but I could seriously be more diligent.
Well, at least if it's horse meat, you know it most likely wasn't fed antibiotics and growth hormones, since it is less likely it was raised for meat purposes. At this point in the game after reading however many stories about livestock raising practices, I'd rather have horse than chicken or cattle.
ReplyDelete@ Zeeky - Yes, I always stock up on lingonberry jam for my b/f. I don't care for it, but I don't like jams and jellies anyway. He eats it with meats.
ReplyDeleteBacon looks pretty good now, doesn't it!?!?!?!
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing about the horse meat is that they give them some sort of painkiller made from tree frog drippings which isn't deemed safe for human consumption. I am a redneck who has eaten frog legs, rabbit, deer, crawfish, turtle, gator, and catfish. So, if I don't wanna eat horse, by Trigger, don't try sneaking it in my hamburger. It's wrong. I wouldn't do it to someone else, I don't want it done to me.
ReplyDeleteum horse meat is meat you mean mislabelled meat and while I agree mislabelling meat is rephrensible that is not to say there is a problem with horse meat per se so long as you know what you are getting
ReplyDeletebeats road kill
some areas of the world prefer horse to cow,
people in the West get squeamish about eating animals that we domesticate as pets
in Ontario with the stupid government giving and then taking slots away from the racetracks there is now plenty of horsemeat on the market and cheap too
Not to get all political, but this is exactly why we need government regulation of the food industry (not to mention other industries). That said, I don't think horse is THAT bad, compared to some other things you could eat...
ReplyDeleteHorse meat is pretty usual in both McDonalds and BK hamburgers in Sweden. What's more disgusting is that sometimes horse poo "accidentally" mixes up with the meat. But I guess that applies everywhere, with all kinds of minced meat.
ReplyDeleteNo really upset by ths, I find the reports on fixed pigs much more upsetting.