Old meat rations on sale in Sweden

Following revelations that Swedish meat supplies from the Cold War era are being served up in restaurants in Poland, its has been revealed that tinned rations are also on sale in Sweden.

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Meat from stockpiles dating back 27 years is being sold on Swedish websites, according to an investigation by the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper.

SvD recently uncovered details that Sweden phased out 1.5 million kilograms of meat in the late 1990s. Conserved between 1983 and 1993, it had a recommended durability of ten years and was sold to a trading company by the Swedish Board of Agriculture.

According to a follow-up article, a number of Swedish websites are also selling the meat. "Consumers can use it for whatever they want," one seller told the newspaper.

"Either they eat it themselves or use it as petfood. We inform them about the use-by-date and they should be aware of it. But we eat the supplies too, I am almost sick of the stuff."

Minutes after speaking to the paper, the meat was removed from the seller's website.

Sweden's National Food Administration (Livsmedelsverket) say they will investigate the issue further. "This is new information to us," spokesperson Peter Brådenmark told SvD.

"Those that sell the product have a responsibility. It is not enough for them to say it tastes good, it must undergo laboratory tests."

The meat, sold on to restaurants and served up for school dinners in Poland, has been declared rancid and decayed following analysis from an agricultural college in Warsaw. The tests were carried out on behalf of SvD and Polish television programme Uwaga.