Ikea in Croydon have now stopped selling all meatballs after a batch was found to be contaminated with horsemeat.

The company have taken the extra-precautionary measure after the Czech State Veterinary Administration found the traces of horse during tests on Ikea’s beef and pork meatballs.

Meatballs from the same contaminated batch were being sold at the store in Valley Park Croydon.

Ikea said they had no specific figures yet for how long they were being sold for and how big the batch of defective meatballs were.

They were on sale in the shop and not being sold in the store’s restaurant.

An Ikea spokesman said all meatballs come from the same supplier in Sweden but there is different production processes for meatballs being sold in the supermarket section and those in the restaurant.

The spokesman added that there was no suggestion that meatballs being sold in the restaurant were contaminated.

Ikea said in house testing of 12 samples of meatball batches two weeks ago showed no traces.

Ikea stopped all meatball sales in Europe with Norway, Russia, Switzerland and Poland the exceptions.

Anders Lennartsson, of Ikea Food Services, said: “We take seriously the test result from the Czech Republic authorities, indicating presence of horse meat in one batch of our meatballs.

“The trust of our customers are of outmost importance which is why the concerned production batch of meatballs was immediately withdrawn and we are now taking this extra-precautionary measure.

“We do not tolerate any other ingredients than the ones stipulated in our recipes or specifications, secured through set standards, certifications and product analysis by accredited laboratories.”