Swedish retailer IKEA has stopped selling sausages in its 14 Russian stores after tests showed that sausages from its local supplier contained horse meat, the company said Thursday.
The world's No. 1 furniture retailer, known also for the restaurants at its huge out-of-town stores, said the tests confirmed the presence of horse meat in sausages produced by meat processing company Remit.
Remit was not available for comment.
Last month IKEA withdrew IKEA-branded wiener sausages produced by Familjen Dafgard from stores in a number of European countries and stopped nearly all sales of the same supplier's meatballs across the region.
Those withdrawals did not affect meatballs in Russia, and IKEA said Thursday that tests revealed no horse meat in meatballs being supplied to IKEA's Russian stores by local producer PIT-Product, which is owned by Finnish group Atria.
A European scandal erupted in January when tests in Ireland revealed that some beef products also contained horse meat, triggering recalls of ready meals in several countries and damaging confidence in Europe's vast and complex food industry.
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