Horsemeat: IKEA withdraws hotdogs in Russia
The revelation came last week (7 March), as IKEA announced it was withdrawing the products from its 14 Russian stores. It is not known to affect any other country.
An IKEA spokesperson said: "The test result from Russia concerns locally produced hotdogs and only affects the Russian market."
IKEA has previously withdrawn its meatballs and sausages in the UK after horse DNA was discovered. The wiener sausages are now back on sale after the last round of tests showed no traces of horse DNA.
In a statement, the company said: "IKEA Group and our suppliers, as well as various local authorities have initiated several hundred tests of our meat products from different suppliers in all markets.
"The vast majority of these tests show no indication of horsemeat. However, there are also a few tests that do. In those cases we have removed the product from sales."
Russia has previously stated that it may ban all imports from the EU due to horsemeat fears.
Head of Russian health and consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor recently sent a letter to the European Commission saying that unless guarantees of no contamination could be provided, Russian authorities would ban all meat products from the EU.
