LISBON, March 8, (Agencies): Burgers and meatballs sold in Portugal by French retailer Auchan have been found to contain horsemeat with small traces of an animal painkiller that is potentially harmful to humans, Portugal’s consumer watchdog said Thursday.
The country’s consumer protection association DECO said it had “detected anti-inflammatory drugs in horsemeat found in food products on sale in Portugal, which may pose a risk to public health as the use of such drugs is banned in animals destined for human consumption.”
“Phenylbutazone was detected in samples of Auchan hamburger and in Polegar meatballs, which according to an initial analysis, contained horse DNA,” the group said in a statement.
Polegar is Auchan’s low-price brand.
According to Deco, the samples showed only low-level traces of phenylbutazone, also known as “bute”, and did “not present an immediate danger” to people’s health.
The association announced on Monday that these meat products sold in Portugal by Auchan, as well as lasagnes sold by the Spanish El Corte Ingles group, contained traces of unlabelled horsemeat.
Meanwhile, Swedish retailer IKEA has stopped selling sausages in its 14 Russian stores after tests showed that sausages from its local supplier contained horsemeat, the company said on Thursday.
The world’s No. 1 furniture retailer, known also for the restaurants at its huge out-of-town stores, said that the tests confirmed the presence of horsemeat 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 on Thursday that tests revealed no horsemeat 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 horsemeat, triggering recalls of ready meals in several countries and damaging confidence in Europe’s vast and complex food industry.