Ikea's Sweden-based meatball supplier on Tuesday claimed its own tests failed to reveal any horsemeat in its Swedish meatballs as Ikea widened its meatball ban to 24 countries following reports the iconic food contained horsemeat. 
 
 
 
 "We've been duped, there is a criminal act behind this," Ulf Dafgård , head of Swedish food producer Gunnar Dafgård AB, told the Aftonbladet newspaper amid crisis talks at the company on Monday.The company, one of Sweden's largest food producers and the primary Swedish meatball supplier to Ikea stores in Europe, has been testing all of its meat products after Czech food inspectors found traces of horsemeat in a shipment of the Dafgård-made meatballs.On Tuesday, the company announced 320 tests conducted in the last three weeks failed to reveal horsemeat in any Dafgård-produced meatballs."We've received results from our own tests, as well as from external labs, on finished products and none of them show any traces of horsemeat," Dafgård said in a statement released on Tuesday.He added that testing continues in the wake of contradictory findings from test conducted in the Czech Republic."If something is shown to contain horsemeat, the affected products will obviously be taken off the market," said Dafgård.Following reports on Monday of the horsemeat discovery, Ikea halted meatball sales at stores in Sweden and 14 other European countries. On Tuesday, the Swedish furniture retailer extended the ban to stores 24 countries, including outlets in Hong Kong, Thailand, and the Dominican Republic."It's an important product for us, so the measure is significant but we don't want our clients to worry," Ikea spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson told AFP.She said that a German laboratory was currently testing the meatballs for traces of horsemeat, with the first results expected on Thursday.Speaking with Aftonbladet on Monday, Dafgård theorized that the horsemeat may have ended up in his company's meatballs because a slaughterhouse used substituted it in a bid to lower production costs, adding that simple contamination is unlikely because none of the slaughterhouses from which Dafgård buys meat handle horsemeat.While refusing to comment specifically on Ikea's meatballs, Dafgård explained that much of his company's meat is purchased from suppliers in Ireland and Germany, as well as Sweden and other countries in northern Europe.He added that his company wants to know why the results of their own horsemeat tests differ from those conducted in the Czech Republic."The lab in the Czech Republic hasn't been able to say how much [horsemeat] we're talking about. That's something we really want to know," Dafgård told Sveriges Television (SVT).Meanwhile, Swedish Agriculture Minister Eskil Erlandsson has been criticized for suggesting that Sweden's National Food Agency (Livsmedelsverket) take over all responsibility for inspecting meat production facilities in Sweden.According to the Swedish Associations of Local Authorities and Regions ( SALAR ), local authorities should also be involved."Municipalities are close to citizens and citizens have the ability to have a voice if something comes up," Salar spokeswoman Ann-Sofie Eriksson told Sveriges Radio (SR).While some Swedish food companies claim that certain municipalities have failed to carry out the oversight responsibilities they currently have, Eriksson at SALAR argued the current system works well."We think checks carried out by municipalities work well, and in the cases we have now, it's been with the National Food Agency where the problems have been, rather than with the municipalities," she told SR. 

 Swedish furniture chain IKEA has withdrawn its Köttbullar meatballs from stores in 24 countries in the last two days, adding Germany and others to that list on Tuesday after Czech food inspectors found horse DNA in frozen meatballs at a branch in Brno on Monday. 
 
 A company spokeswoman confirmed that the meatballs had been taken off the shelves in Germany on Tuesday. It remains unclear whether horsemeat was served to customers of stores in the country, though. 
 
 "The IKEA Group has taken an extra-precautionary measure by issuing a temporary sales stop of meatballs in parts of Europe," the company said in a statement on Monday. "The sales stop concerns meatballs manufactured by one supplier in Sweden and applies to all European countries except for Norway, Russia and a limited number of products in Switzerland and Poland." 
 
 "We take seriously the test result from the Czech Republic authorities, indicating presence of horse meat in one batch of our meatballs." 
 
 The company said it had initiated DNA analyses of all meat products in the range two weeks ago and that twelve tested samples of different batches of meatballs showed no traces of horsemeat. "We expect the test results at the end of the week to confirm that there are no indications of horsemeat in the meatballs." 
 
 The meatballs in question were supplied by Gunnar Dafgård AB, a family-run frozen food business in southwestern Sweden. The company could not immediately be reached for comment. 
 
 In Germany and many other European countries, undeclared traces of horsemeat have been found in ready meals such as ravioli, frozen lasagna and tinned goulasch in recent weeks. A major investigation into the scandal is underway. 

 Frozen beef burger and ready meal sales have plunged dramatically, according to the first retail sales data since the horsemeat scandal erupted. 
 
 Kantar Worldpanel said that in the four weeks ending February 17, frozen burger sales plunged by 43% while frozen ready meals dropped 13%. 
 
 While some of the decline can be directly attributed to consumers rejecting the products, there has also been an availability reduction as affected lines were progressively withdrawn by retailers. 
 
 Last week Birds Eye withdrew 15 beef products in four European nations 
 
 Horsemeat contamination was first revealed on January 16 after analysis was undertaken by Irish food officials. The scandal has since spread across Europe. 
 
 A Nielsen consumer survey conducted two weeks ago showed that 96% of UK adults were aware of the horsemeat scandal and 74% were concerned about it. 
 
 According to Kantar, the latest research indicates a significant change in shopping habits as a result of the contamination. 
 
 The data also indicated changing fortunes of supermarkets during the 12 weeks to February 17. 
 
 It said out of the so-called Big Four supermarkets - Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco - only Sainsbury's increased market share in the quarter. 
 
 Sainsbury's saw a growth rate of 4.6% in the period, while Tesco saw its market share drop from 30.1% a year ago to 29.7% now. 
 
 Tesco was the first major retailer to withdraw its frozen burgers, after equine DNA was discovered in products produced by its meat processors. 
 
 "It might seem natural to attribute this decline to the horsemeat contamination; however, Tesco undertook heavy promotions this time last year, where consumers received a £5 voucher when they spent £40, and not repeating this offer will have adversely affected its share," Kantar Worldpanel director Edward Garner said. 
 
 Morrisons was the only retailer to post a sales decline in the 12 weeks, due in part to easing Christmas demand, a lack of convenience stores and no online presence. 
 
 It has since announced a decision to buy a swathe of Blockbuster video stores to convert into metro outlets. 
 
 Morrisons is also expected to bolster sales in the coming months as it is the only major UK supermarket with its own abattoir division, assuring meat supply chain integrity. 
 
 Meanwhile, there appears to be a growing split in the upper and lower edges of the market. 
 
 "Waitrose and Aldi deliver all-time record shares this period of 4.8% and 3.3% respectively indicating that market polarisation and the 'two nations' consumer climate continues," Mr Garner said. 
 
 "Iceland records 10.1% growth confirming that the frozen food category as a whole remains robust." 
 
 Research now shows that the total grocery market is growing at a rate of 3.7%, which lags behind grocery price sector inflation of 4.3%. 
 
 As a result, pressure continues on shoppers who are using 'coping strategies' to reduce their effective personal inflation rate. 
 
 These strategies include switching products and retailers to seek out offers.
– Ikea's horse-meatball mess continues to grow. The retailer has now stopped offering meatballs in 24 European countries, der Spiegel reports. The company explained in a statement that, "The sales stop concerns meatballs manufactured by one supplier in Sweden and applies to all European countries except for Norway, Russia, and a limited number of products in Switzerland and Poland." But is something nefarious afoot? That supplier today announced that 320 tests carried out this month haven't turned up any horse meat. "We've been duped, there is a criminal act behind this," said the head of the company, reports the Local. Meanwhile, as Britain frets over horse meat, burger sales have taken a serious slide: Frozen beef burger sales dropped 43% in the country in the four weeks ending Feb. 17, Sky News reports, while sales of frozen meals sank 13%. The figures come from the first retail report following the scandal. The drop is the result of both consumers' beef avoidance and retailers' removal of products.