The Swedish home products giant IKEA confirmed on Monday that it had stopped selling meatballs in Sweden since horsemeat was detected in the products.

"Considering the possible concerns of customers, we now have stopped selling meatballs in Sweden," IKEA press officer Sara Paulsson was quoted as saying by Swedish news agency TT.

Horsemeat was detected in the meatballs labeled "Made in Sweden" to be sold at IKEA stores in the Czech Republic. The meatballs should have mainly contained pork and beef as labeled.

It was the first case of undeclared horsemeat contained in products made in Sweden. Test is still underway on how much horsemeat was mixed into the product.

Most of the IKEA meatballs were produced by the Swedish company Dafgard, which had been informed that horsemeat was found in one of the three tests conducted by the Czech authorities, according to Karin Cerenius from the Swedish National Food Agency.

The horsemeat scandal, which has spread to a number of European countries, came to the surface in mid-January when Irish food inspectors detected horsemeat in frozen beef burgers made by firms in Ireland and Britain. Endi