Another day, another food misadventure for IKEA: Fresh off the heels of the Swedish retailer’s horsemeat-in-the-meatballs snafu, the company has announced it’s pulling almond cake from its stores in 23 countries after some batches on the way to China were found to contain coliform bacteria. That’s a common bacteria in human an animal fecal matter. Yup, more poop in the news.

IKEA says Chinese customs officials found a batch of cakes imported to the country from Sweden and destroyed all 1,800 of them after tests showed they contained levels of coliform bacteria that are too high to be acceptable. The bacteria shows up in dirt, vegetation, water and often, the feces of warm-blooded animals, notes the Wall Street Journal.

None of the cakes ever reached Chinese IKEA consumers, and just to be safe the company has pulled the product from all 23 countries it’s usually sold in (which the WSJ says doesn’t include Sweden because it isn’t sold there, but was included on the list from The Telegraph): Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates.

“Chinese customs officials have found coliform bacteria that exceeds limits and we have decided to stop the sales of these cakes in all markets,” said an IKEA spokeswoman, adding that even if anyone had ingested the cake, there would be no health risks associated with eating it.

“The production batches have, as per safety and quality routines, been tested for bacteria that can cause health issues, such as E.coli, and none of these pathogen bacteria have been found. However, since the product does not comply with our strict food quality standards we have decided to withdraw the concerned production batches from sale in the 23 affected countries. The UK and Ireland are not affected.”

IKEA Stops Cake Sales After Bacteria Found [Wall Street Journal]
Ikea recalls cakes in 23 countries after sewage bacteria found [The Telegraph]

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