Horsemeat Scandal Hits Furniture Giant IKEA

By ⋅ February 25, 2013 ⋅ Post a comment
A billboard advertising IKEA meatballs is seen in the parking lot at the IKEA store in Malmo, Sweden. (Photo: REUTERS/Johannes Cleris/Scanpix)

A billboard advertising IKEA meatballs is seen in the parking lot at the IKEA store in Malmo, Sweden. (Photo: REUTERS/Johannes Cleris/Scanpix)

IKEA announced on Monday that horsemeat was found in their Swedish meatballs in the Czech Republic.

Now the furniture superstore has pulled their meatballs from shelves in Europe.

This is the latest link in a ever widening horsemeat scandal.

Or is it such a scandal to begin with?

Not so much according to New York Times food writer, Mark Bittman.

Bittman talks with anchor, Marco Werman about the bigger implications of finding horsemeat in the food chain and some IKEA meatball memories.

Discussion

10 comments for “Horsemeat Scandal Hits Furniture Giant IKEA”

  • HollyConcerned

    Mark Bittman’s lack of concern over horse meat in the meat balls is extremely regrettable if there was no over site on where the horses came from and how they were raised. If they came from a race track history they could most likely be  contaminated with various drugs such as ‘bute’. This needs to be regulated. The human treatment of the horses is another consideration as well.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/4OM2JBMHAKKWKTAH6F4MUNZOLQ Martha

    Mark Bittman’s snarky attitude towards the presence of horsemeat in supposed beef products showed a complete lack of respect for public health and horse owners.  As the meat was not correctly labeled, the meat could be from old or ill animals, dead horses not killed in a slaughterhouse or ones whose meat has been contaminated by medications, hormones, or the drugs used to euthanize a horse.  Additionally, there has been an increase in horse-stealing in the last couple of years.  These are typically horses kept on pasture, usually family pets, that are stolen and taken to slaughter-houses.  This is not the way to feed people, no matter what Mr. Bittman is willing to swallow!

  • thankgodforpbsandnpr

    Bittman: “I don’t even get why it’s a scandal because generally speaking people who eat at places like, for example, (laughing) IKEA, have no idea what’s in the food that they’re putting in their mouths…”

    Dear The World,
    The next time you have a story about adulterated food – or any other food safety issue – please do us all a favor – talk with a food safety expert, not a food critic snob.

    • Eurodude

      Really, so what about your wonderful all American fast food alternatives – pink slime juicy burger, chicken nuggets, mechanically separated meat or colored pure fat (OK, selection brand w/ 95% fat) franks.

  • pizeta

    I do not understand the blase attitude re Horsemeat Scandal.  The question is not whether it is an edible product.  If you pay for a ruby or emerald, are you content, if you come home with coloured glass?  Or, if you pay for a Ford, is it OK if there is a lawnmower engine under the hood, afterall, a lawnmower engine is a good engine?  The point is, you paid for one product and were maliciously given another.  It is FRAUD!

  • JadeG12

    I am an admirer of Mark Bittman and I use his cookbooks regularly. Hearing his blasé contempt for people who shop at Ikea and his lack of concern about adulterated food shocked me. So he thinks actually getting what you order is only for fancy restaurants and pricey gourmet stores? The peasants should eat whatever slop comes their way, whether its squirrel, dog or horsemeat? What a total lack of comprehension. I am revising my view of Bittman.

    The horsemeat getting into the human food chain is a matter of concern, not a joke. I hope this issue gets more serious discussion, with a more qualified food expert like Marion Nestle, Rick North, Michael Pollan or Kelly Brownell.

  • susanrudnicki

    I have found “foodies” like Bittman to be the norm, regarding their arrogant attitudes, often expressed as “don’t mess with MY frivolous comestible”   And Marion Nestle has just expressed a similar lack of education on her Politics blog regarding the horse meat contamination scandal.   I wrote a comment on her site—-

    Let me educate a few of you. Horses in the US are uniformly treated
    with drugs BANNED for use in food animals. The use of Phenylbutazone, a
    anti-inflammatory which causes aplastic anemia in humans, is
    especially common in racehorses whose owners deem them no longer a
    worthwhile investment. ONE DOSE of this drug disqualifies an animal for
    use as human food, and there is no allowable withdrawal period. Most
    sport and pleasure horse have also received in their lives wormers, pain
    meds and a raft of other drugs clearly labeled “not for use in food
    animals” It is MUCH more than a political scandal, Ms Nestle, and I am
    shocked with your blithe dismissal of a subject you do not seem to have
    investigated very deeply. American horse slaughter plants were driven
    to close by the horrific conditions endured, not only by horses, but by
    the towns where these plants were located. Business prospects
    withered, sewerage systems overflowed with blood despite complaints from
    municipal authorities, great dumpsters of offal, hides and bones stood
    in the open attracting vermin, taxes were not paid by these European
    owned, taxpayer subsidized outlaw abattoirs, and the only people who
    would work in such soul numbing operations were illegal aliens and
    former convicts. If you doubt me, check the reams of documentation
    accumulated by the little town of Kaufman TX which endured this horse
    slaughter blight for decades before finally shutting it down. The horse
    slaughter industry is driven by demand overseas and overbreeding
    schemes in the US by breed registries using slaughter as a culling
    mechanism for overproduction. Members of these associations are
    advised to support slaughter. The breed registries counsel how to
    shelter income with the loss write-off from horses not deemed perfect.
    It is the puppy mill counterpart in the horse world. There are
    over 900 pages of FOIA (freedom of information act) documents compiled
    by our own USDA of the Dekalb slaughter plant showing horrific abuse of
    horses in the slaughter pipeline, from animals arriving with legs
    ripped off in shipment to eyes dangling to pregnant mares sprawled on
    the killing floor with the foal cut from their abdomen as they are still
    writhing. All of these just mentioned conditions are a violation for
    slaughter for human consumption. Whether you are concerned about the
    welfare issues—which many here are clearly not—the contamination of the
    meat supply is of great import. Phenylbutazone was once used
    experimentally for humans till it was found to cause cancer. The great
    majority of the horsemeat exported from Mexico and Canada is
    contaminated by this drug and others—it is not tested and the medication
    tracking of horses in not done. Do not put great store by the EU
    Equine “Passport System” either, as there has been ample evidence the
    system is corrupt, passport numbers being traded on the black market and
    the oversight is full of holes.

  • susanrudnicki

    Let me educate a few of you. Horses in the US are uniformly treated
    with drugs BANNED for use in food animals. The use of Phenylbutazone, a
    anti-inflammatory which causes aplastic anemia in humans, is
    especially common in racehorses whose owners deem them no longer a
    worthwhile investment. ONE DOSE of this drug disqualifies an animal for
    use as human food, and there is no allowable withdrawal period. Most
    sport and pleasure horse have also received in their lives wormers, pain
    meds and a raft of other drugs clearly labeled “not for use in food
    animals” It is MUCH more than a political scandal, Ms Nestle, and I am
    shocked with your blithe dismissal of a subject you do not seem to have
    investigated very deeply. American horse slaughter plants were driven
    to close by the horrific conditions endured, not only by horses, but by
    the towns where these plants were located. Business prospects
    withered, sewerage systems overflowed with blood despite complaints from
    municipal authorities, great dumpsters of offal, hides and bones stood
    in the open attracting vermin, taxes were not paid by these European
    owned, taxpayer subsidized outlaw abattoirs, and the only people who
    would work in such soul numbing operations were illegal aliens and
    former convicts. If you doubt me, check the reams of documentation
    accumulated by the little town of Kaufman TX which endured this horse
    slaughter blight for decades before finally shutting it down. The horse
    slaughter industry is driven by demand overseas and overbreeding
    schemes in the US by breed registries using slaughter as a culling
    mechanism for overproduction. Members of these associations are
    advised to support slaughter. The breed registries counsel how to
    shelter income with the loss write-off from horses not deemed perfect.
    It is the puppy mill counterpart in the horse world. There are
    over 900 pages of FOIA (freedom of information act) documents compiled
    by our own USDA of the Dekalb slaughter plant showing horrific abuse of
    horses in the slaughter pipeline, from animals arriving with legs
    ripped off in shipment to eyes dangling to pregnant mares sprawled on
    the killing floor with the foal cut from their abdomen as they are still
    writhing. All of these just mentioned conditions are a violation for
    slaughter for human consumption. Whether you are concerned about the
    welfare issues—which many here are clearly not—the contamination of the
    meat supply is of great import. Phenylbutazone was once used
    experimentally for humans till it was found to cause cancer. The great
    majority of the horsemeat exported from Mexico and Canada is
    contaminated by this drug and others—it is not tested and the medication
    tracking of horses in not done. Do not put great store by the EU
    Equine “Passport System” either, as there has been ample evidence the
    system is corrupt, passport numbers being traded on the black market and
    the oversight is full of holes.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=574082085 L.E. McCullough

    Soylent Green is just about here.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=574082085 L.E. McCullough

    Soylent Green is just about here.