Business & Tech

Hold Your Horses: Meatballs at IKEA U.S. Stores OK

Hicksville furniture store's renowned Swedish meatballs are made from pork and beef; no horse meat.

Those delicious Swedish meatballs sold at IKEA's Hicksville store and renowned all over Long Island are free of horse meat.

That's the reassuring word from IKEA store spokeswoman Mona Liss, who says the horse meat scandal spreading across Europe hasn't impacted the United States.

Liss told NBCNews.com that the popular meatballs sold in IKEA furniture stores in the U.S. are strictly made of pork and beef, provided by a domestic supplier.

U.S. IKEA stores are not impacted by the recall of frozen meatballs in the Czech Republic.

“We can confirm that the contents of the meatballs follow the IKEA recipe and contain only beef and pork from animals raised in the U.S. and Canada,” Liss said in a statement to NBC News. “All beef and pork from the U.S. and Canada must comply with USDA guidelines.”

The European horse meat scandal escalated Monday when IKEA withdrew meatballs from sale in 14 European countries, the New York Times reported. The Sweden-based furniture giant said it was stopping sales “of the concerned batch” of meatballs in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, France, Britain, Portugal, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Ireland, according to the Times.


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