China Destroys 1,800 IKEA Cakes Over Coliform Bacteria [Updated: Now Recalled in 23 Countries]

Swedish furniture and meatball retailer IKEA is having another rough week after last week's horse meat discovery. According to the Wall Street Journal, Chinese authorities have discovered "too high levels of coliform bacteria" — often found in the feces of warm-blooded animals — in a batch of 1,800 almond cakes. Chinese health officials have destroyed the almond cakes with butter cream and butterscotch, and IKEA has also stopped sales of the cakes in all of its markets. IKEA spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson tells the paper that the supplier didn't find any E. coli or human intestinal bacteria in a test of the same batch of cakes, but that IKEA "is taking the discovery of coliform bacteria very seriously."

Magnusson further explains to the Associated Press that the cakes are sold in a majority of countries where the retailer operates. However, since the nearly two tons of cakes were destroyed late last year, she says, "none of the cakes made it to our restaurants." Phew. And in other news, the Chinese authorities also destroyed a small batch of expired Kraft cream cheese and 2.7 tons of Nestle chocolate bars containing sorbitol, which Shanghai Daily notes is "a sweetener that can cause bowel problems in large amounts."

UPDATE 3/5: An IKEA spokesperson tells The Telegraph that it has recalled the product from 23 countries: 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.

· IKEA Stops Cake Sales After Bacteria Found [WSJ]
· China destroys Ikea cake, Nestle chocolate [AP]
· Chocolate bars, cake not up to standard [Shanghai Daily]
· All IKEA Coverage on Eater [-E-]