Executives of the two Iceland grocery stores in Iceland have in collaboration with the Reykjavík Public Health Authority decided to recall frozen hamburgers from Iceland Foods in the U.K. on suspicion of them containing horse meat—a big scandal in the U.K.

Archive photo: Páll Stefánsson/Iceland Review.

A statement reads that the product in question may contain horse meat in spite of being labeled as containing 100 percent beef. It has the production number (PLU) 21244 and best before date 06.08.2013, visir.is reports.

The hamburgers have been removed from the Iceland stores in Iceland’s capital region. Customers who have already bought the product can hand it in either at the store on Fiskislóð, Reykjavík, or Engihjalli, Kópavogur.

In related news, businessman Jóhannes Jónsson, who founded budget grocery store chain Bónus with his son Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson, has sold 51 percent of his shares in Ísland-Verslun hf., which owns and runs the Iceland grocery stores in Iceland.

The buyer is a company owned by Árni Pétur Jónsson, who also owns 100 percent in convenience store chain 10-11 through another company.

After the sale, Jóhannes will maintain a 12 percent share in Ísland-Verslun. The 37 percent shareholder is a company owned by Iceland Foods in the U.K.

Jóhannes will step down as the company’s managing director and take on a position as chair. “It wasn’t planned,” he told visir.is, explaining that he made the move due to health reasons. He has recovered from cancer once but has now been diagnosed with the disease again. “I must spend my time and strength on fighting it.”

Click here to read more about Jóhannes’s businesses and the opening of Iceland in Iceland last year.

ESA